The Dragon's tangle
by Purpuraimperator
Summary: When a new World War breaks out, what happens when Heroes are deployed to the front? Cover by the Talented Jellyfish-Aquarium on tumblr
1. A calm fall evening

Even with the emergence of quirks, some things just don't change. While many governments embraced quirks in everyday life, with heroes becoming prominent figures, others clamped down, strictly. This is the case for the last bearers of a dying ideology. In the People's Republic of China, for example, almost all persons with powerful quirks are repressed and catalogued by the state. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea conducts similar repressions, but they are often more lethal. These measures were to suppress the idea that those with strong quirks are inherently better than others. From what they saw of the US and Japan, they realized that these superhumans would compromise the integrity of their ideologies, already strained by the very existence of billionaires within their nations.

In spite of their repression, Mao's beloved CPC understood that persons with strong quirks could still be useful. The People's liberation army would often take the young, strong quirked children and mold them into hero-soldiers, unlike how Japanese and American heroes would rise to the job of their own accord. These Chinese Hero-warriors were thought of as more of a deterrent rather than an offensive force. _Were_.

In Japan, Around the time that All Might was training a young Midoriya to inherit his quirk, a reactionary party managed to gain an electoral hold over the National Diet. Within several months of whirlwind legislation and reform, they had reinstituted the powers and deification of the Emperor, in effect restoring the 1867 constitution. They also abolished the constitutional restrictions on the Japanese military, angering the Chinese and Korean governments to a great extent, although it was justified to the international community by simply pointing across the narrow seas to the Chinese and Koreans.

In the Fall following the retirement of All Might, The Chinese government decided to start playing hardball with Taiwan, now that the most powerful known superhuman was out of the game. While the First-years at U.A. were trying on new winter outfits and the Number One Hero was reconciling with his family, the negotiations flared up into a firestorm. In spite of the UN valiantly trying to prevent an escalation, the Chinese government would not be deterred, and launched a land invasion of Taiwan, spearheaded by their new Quirk-based special forces. Within the week, Most nations had taken sides in the conflict, with the notable exceptions of India and France, both of whom viewed the conflict as beyond their purview.

The US and Japan, alongside much of the British commonwealth commit to military intervention, with the alliance drafting their top heroes to fight alongside the army as plans begin to unfold. Nuclear attack was ruled out as too costly and too great a risk of escalation. Our story begins on a crisp fall evening, at a well-kept property in the suburbs.

Enji Todoroki looks over the summons, emblazoned with the Imperial Seal. He'd suspected this moment would come, but here he is, reading the orders to report to the headquarters of the recently-renamed Imperial Japanese Army. Many thoughts cross his mind, but none of them are to shirk this duty. This is especially true when the Emperor himself had given the command. The Todorokis are an old-fashioned family, they never really stopped venerating the Emperor. Enji looks over at the messenger, dressed in an immaculate uniform, white gloved hand still somewhat extended out to him.

"Is there anything else?" Enji cocks an eyebrow, looking at somewhat flustered messenger.

"No, sir, just never thought I'd meet you in person. I apologize that it must be on such a dark occasion." The messenger begins to turn to leave, presumably he has more business to attend to.

"Wait, What's your name, young man?" Enji shouts to the man, carefully folding the letter.

"Hayasuya, sir, Corporal Hayasuya Ryu." He turns a little to give the answer, seeming a little confused.

"I wish you luck in these dark days, Hayasuya-san." Enji gives a shallow bow, which the young man returns before jogging off to the motorcycle he'd arrived on. Enji watches him before he closes the door, sighing. He walks back into the living area, where he'd been interrupted having dinner with Natsuo and Fuyumi. The two watch him, curious as to the nature of his visitor at this hour. Enji silently returns to the table, settling down onto his knees.

He stares down at his bowl, deep in thought. Natsuo gets over his curiosity, and returns to eating, remaining silent. After a moment, Fuyumi breaks the silence.

"Father, who was at the door?" Concern flashes across her face, she had seen the news. She'd even deemed it important enough to show the official announcement of a declaration of war to her students the previous day.

"It was a man from the Army. I'm supposed to report to army headquarters in the morning." Enji takes a bite of his noodles, somewhat preoccupied with the implications this letter brings. He'd known that if Japan were to go to war, he'd probably have to do this, but he'd never expected to do so so soon after his rise to the number one spot. His eyes flick up to his two children. They both have their eyes on him, despite the odds being in favor of this, the two are still surprised.

"A-Are you going to go?" Fuyumi stammers, one hand grasping the edge of the table.

"It's my duty, what sort of hero am I if I don't serve my nation to my fullest?" Enji sighs, looking at the two with sincere worry. Should the worst come to happen, who would defend the family? Shouto is skilled, but he's young, and doesn't have the same experience in aiming to kill that Enji has. Of course, killing with a quirk like Hellflame or half-cold, half-hot isn't too hard. Much of Enji's training at U.A. was preventing himself from going too far.

Silence reigns at the table, before Natsuo stands, his expression unreadable.

"I'll be back...I've got things to think about." He exits the room, the sound of him putting on his shoes and leaving the house can be heard. Enji and Fuyumi continue to eat in silence for a few moments.

"Think there will be another invasion?" Fuyumi shudders a little, remembering the photos she'd seen from the last time Japanese troops had made their way to the Chinese Mainland.

"Perhaps, I honestly don't know." He grimaces. While he wouldn't refuse, the idea of turning his powers on soldiers doesn't appeal to him that much. "I'm actually more concerned that the Chinese may launch an invasion here...and I wouldn't be around to help those I care for." He pushes his bowl away, not really that hungry anymore.

"Ah." Fuyumi nods, in total understanding. She finishes her bowl in silence. Enji stands, picking up the table.

"I'll deal with the dishes todnight, washing helps me think." Enji carries the bowls to the sink and grabs a sponge and soap. As he washes, he looks out the window, sighing a little. He'd hoped things wouldn't get to this point, but hopes are all of irrelevant in the face of international politics. As he rinses the first dish, his phone buzzes. He glances down at the screen as it buzzes again. It seems he's being texted by several heroes. He picks up the phone and reads the Texts.

The first was from Thirteen.

 _Enji, did you just get a letter from the army?_

Enji sighs, before quickly responding. _Yes, I suspect our worst fears are coming true._

He flicks through a few more, they all are asking a similar question. Enji cocks his head. Why would they all be asking him? then it strikes him. They're asking him because he's the number one hero. He's the white-hot beacon of justice for society. He begins throwing out quick messages to each, mostly enquiring as to where they're being sent and giving reassurance that things will be alright.

Once Enji finishes the dishes and reassuring heroes, a process that took about twenty minutes, he walks into the room where the television is kept. Fuyumi is already there, having tucked herself beneath a blanket. She's intently watching the news. He takes a seat next to her, finally focusing on the television.

The news is presenting the speech made by the Prime Minister with the American president. The Japanese prime minister has an emissary from the crown standing next to him, while the President has a hero, dressed in what looks to be some sort of Jumpsuit and a Cowboy Hat.

"who's that with the president? I've seen him before." Fuyumi looks over at enji, presumably using this as a light, distracting conversation.

"That's the number one American Hero. His hero name is Castle Bravo. I forget what his real name is, Toshi probably knows, but either way his quirk is that he can shoot blasts of neutron radiation from his hands. Interesting guy." Enji looks over the man on the screen, silent as the President talks about "preservation of freedom" and "a commitment to global peace at all costs". He'd never met the man, but he'd read plenty of interviews. While he's certainly got a degree of fame in his homeland, he's not too well known internationally, since he gets most of his funding from the US military rather than typical sponsors. He seems level headed, although from footage of his work there's an edge of violence to his style, not unlike that one kid in Shouto's class. Enji thinks for a moment, what was his name? Bakuon? Bakira? Bakugou! That's it. Enji nods to himself, glad that he can at least remember that.

He realizes he doesn't know Shouto's class that well at all. Sure he knows Midoriya and Iida, the former for his performance and the latter from his brother, and Of course he's familiar with Yaoyorozu, since her family and his have known each other quite a while. That, and he's pretty sure Shouto has a thing for her. Regardless, other than that group, Enji really doesn't know any of them beyond their appearance and quirk. He furrows his brow, surprised at this realization before he remembers that he's not alone.

He looks over at Fuyumi, who seems concerned at best. The news has gone from the speech to footage of soldiers of the quickly thrown together alliance mobilizing. Of course, Enji realizes that She's probably concerned that he might not be her only relative to be conscripted, since Natsuo is of fighting age. He tries his best to put on a brave face before putting a reassuring arm around her. She jumps a little in surprise, but as soon as she realizes what it is, she leans into the half-hug. The pair keep their eyes on the news, knowing that no matter what happens, nothing will be the same for the Todorokis.

Meanwhile, several hundred miles away, the Number One American hero stares out of the window of an airliner. He chose to pay for his own ticket, buying a first-class trip to Japan. He adjusts his position in the seat, stretching a bit. He cracks his fingers as he thinks. He'd heard that he would be working closely with the Number One Hero of Japan. He presses play on a video he'd watched several times of Endeavor defeating the villain which had left him scarred. His eyes flick over the battle, taking in every aspect. To him, every battle can be broken down into components. In this case, despite the villain having the element of surprise and what seems to be an edge in physical strength, Endeavor still managed to defeat it through the application of his quirk in the exact right way to eliminate the villain with minimal collateral damage. He nods as he sees the final moment approach, where the number two hero aids him with the feathers. He hasn't heard much about this hero, just the reports about his larger scale actions. Either way, during the briefing he'd been told that Hawks would remain in Japan to assist in maintaining civil order, presumably because his quirk is unsuited to combat., presumably since his quirk is less suited to large-scale warfare. He checks his watch, a breitling engraved with his squadron markings. He chuckles a little.

He always found it funny that even though he never really fought in the air, he ended up with the United States Air Force. It was claimed that it was because his quirk is comparable in nature to radiological weapons and the Army and Marines haven't had nuclear ordnance in many years, and the navy doesn't really have a use for a superhero who has all the hydrodynamics of a brick. In reality, he thinks it's just because the army has yet to truly embrace heroes into its doctrine, while the Air Force is perfectly willing to acquire a new land force consisting of persons with incredible abilities that require minimal field support. Regardless, Tex Phillips has been assigned to be the American representations among the heroes earmarked for combat deployment.

He'd been cross to find out about that, since it meant it would take longer for him to get to work. The arithmetic of war always fascinated him, Sun tzu, Rommel, Clausewitz, he'd read 'em all. All of them would say that it was unwise to have a great asset away from the field for an extended period. He understands the logic, getting to know his allies, but isn't the best way to know a man to see how he works in battle?

Either way, here he is, waiting for the Japanese coast to come into view as he returns to reviewing the information he's been given. The documents read like most military documents: Boring, concise, and highly informative if you can sit through them. The Thermonuclear Hero allows a smile to play across his face as he reads. It's ironic, when he was a boy, sitting in history class, the Imperial Japanese Army was an enemy, now, they're the greatest allies in conflict against the Chinese. He mutters a little under his breath, this is going to be a long evening.


	2. A meeting of men

Endeavor stands at attention, several pro heroes and himself have been brought into an assembly hall within the Imperial Army supreme command. The immaculately crafted room has several chairs arrayed on the stage. The audience seems to mainly be bureaucrats and minor officials. The main exception among the sea of business suits and drab uniforms sits in the front row. The American Hero is dressed in a U.S. Air Force dress uniform, his shoulders bear two stars, marking him as a major general. He has one leg folded over another, his cap kept in his lap. He uses one finger to pull at his collar a bit. He prefers his hero costume, a flight jumpsuit with patches from Global Strike Command and the Hero Warfighting Division, a stetson hat, and a pair of cowboy boots. Of course, there's a lot of other equipment, such as the gauntlets which can focus his neutron blasts and the goggles that protect eyes from the blinding flashes his quirk produces, but they don't really enhance comfort that much.

He keeps his eyes on the stage, watching the commissioning ceremony with interest. An emissary of the Emperor is making a speech. Tex wishes he could understand, but his japanese is barely good enough to order a katsu sandwich, let alone understand a poetic speech being made for the benefit of the heroes. After several minutes of speaking, the emissary finishes, and hands the podium over to the minister of the Army. His speech is shorter, and seems to be about responsibility from what the hero can make out. Following the short speech He steps over to a table where several swords sit, each in a brown leather scabbard that matches the dress boots of the minister of the Army. Endeavor approaches, and following an oath, he bows before receiving the sword. He tucks it under his arm, says some sort of statement in appreciation before returning to his position in front of his chair. He places the tip on the floor, resting his hands on the Pommel.

The next hero to come up looks almost like a ninja, with oddly styled grey hair. He quietly gives his oath and takes a position next to endeavor, in the same pose. This follows for the rest of the present heroes, the last of whom is a woman in a white and purple and white bodysuit, with a pair of horns attached to her mask. The blonde seems nervous about her oaths and receiving the sword. After the group of heroes have been formally commissioned, the Minister of the Army takes the stand once more, says a few words, and then he puts up both fists. The rest of the auditorium stands, and they cry with several hundred voices.

"Tennohaika, **Banzai**!" In spite of the shouting, the American hero remains seated. This is obviously a practice which he's alien to, and he decides not to get involved to avoid an incident. After several repetitions of the loud salute, the crowd is dismissed. The audience begins vacating the room, a low chatter filling the auditorium as the officials make their way out. He notes a trio approaching the stage. The hero squints a little as he attempts to figure out who they are, but then it hits him. From their relative ages and appearance, they must be Endeavor's children. Tex really doesn't know much about Endeavor's personal life, just that he has several kids and one is apparently a good student at the top hero school in Japan, from the reports, the Japanese military has a distinct interest in Him as an asset.

"I'll keep in touch once I receive my orders." Enji places a reassuring hand on Mt. Lady's shoulder, keeping eye contact with her. "Who knows, you might not even need to go to the field at all." He nods along with his words, trying to believe them himself, it doesn't work. In the back of his head he knows that she'll be on Chinese or Korean soil soon, along with himself. Why else would they commission heroes into the military if not to deploy them? He feels a tap on the shoulder, and he turns around. A small, grim smile on his face at the sight of Shouto, Natsuo, and Fuyumi looking up at him. Well, Natsuo is busy talking with edgeshot, but it's the thought that counts.

"So, you're a general now…" Shouto's tone is even, almost unreadable. He's good at seeming tepid, almost like his quirk, the fire and ice neutralizing each other.

"Yes...It would appear so, No.1 hero and now officially leader of the Hero forces under Japanese command." He eases himself a little, trying his best to relax in spite of the immense pressure that's been placed onto him. He moves his eyes over the other heroes, his imagination easily conceiving the carnage they could unleash. In that moment, he's glad Shouto was the last of his children, had Natsuo or Fuyumi been born with his quirk, they would have definitely been on this stage receiving the burden of a blade at the same time. Shouto, on the other hand, he's young, he's still in high school and he has just over two years before he can be thrown into the meat grinder. Enji involuntarily furrows his brow, it'd be difficult at best to bring the conflict to an end before that time.

"Father, are you alright?" He breaks out of his reverie, looking to see his daughter, face filled with concern.

"Yes, yes, just thinking is all."

"Excuse me, Todoroki-dono." An oddly accented voice reaches Enji's ear. He cocks one eyebrow as he turns, finding himself face to face with the green eyes of a very large man in a U.S. military uniform. "My name is Tex Phillips, as a hero, the people call me 'Castle Bravo'" His Japanese is a little stilted, and it's obvious he had practiced the introduction, possibly with a translator on his phone before approaching the Flame hero. The man offers a shallow bow, presumably having seen other people doing it during his time in Japan. Enji nods, before he addresses the man in english, his own accent somewhat thick due to his disuse of the language.

"It's nice to meet you, I've heard quite a bit about you. Also, given our positions, I would think that the correct honorific would be -san, -dono is a little...formal I think would be the right term? It's not like I'm that much greater than you are." Enji looks over the American, using his little diatribe on honorifics to distract himself.

"Thank you very much, It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." The Arizonan straightens back up, his cap held under one arm to keep it out of the way. He extends a hand to shake, hoping Enji will take him up on it. After a moment, Enji takes the hand, shaking firmly before disengaging.

"I didn't think you'd arrive until later tonight." Enji rests his hands on his sword, using it like a walking stick.

"Oh, I have to report to high command tonight. I arrived last night so I could sleep before getting to work." He still looks tired, slight bags under his eyes.

"Hmmm." Enji puts an arm around him, drawing him aside to speak quietly. "How are things really going? The news seems optimistic, but Now that it's my business, I want to know the truth."

"Ehhh" The american thinks for a moment. "The Korean Front is a stalemate, Chinese and Norks are trying to find weak points in the line. We're preparing Seoul to evacuate, just in case. The Taiwan front is a different story. We have Naval supremacy, but the Chinese keep throwing missiles across the strait whenever we get between Taiwan and their mainland. We're holding the North half of the Island, but it's tenuous. We're probably going to go there first before anything, but if it fails, they've already prepared for the government to flee and make a government in exile in the U.S.. We're also seeing heavy civilian casualties, the Chinese heroes seem almost homicidally insane." Enji nods along as he listens. He'd heard rumours, but to have it confirmed in this way makes his lip twitch in mild disgust.

"Is hero even the right term? From my perspective, someone who uses their quirk to harm innocents is pretty much a villian." Enji Harrumphs, he never approved of heroes as full time fighters. He understands using them in times of war, but they should owe their service to their nation rather than their military. In fact, he would have a similar attitude towards the hero in front of him if it weren't for his joining the military being fully voluntary.

"Well, with this attitude, I guess that would be an accurate way to talk about it." Tex stretches a little, before looking over at the pair who'd been talking with the Flame hero. It clicks in his mind that the pair must be his kids, especially considering the red in both their hair. He thinks for a moment before he makes a statement in Japanese. "I'm very quite sorry, I was very excited to meet your father." The one with a scar responds in english, his accent is a little less prominent than his father's

"It's fine, we were just expressing some concerns we had about the war." The scarred teen adjusts his necktie. While Tex forgets the name of your young man, he does remember seeing him in some of the videos he'd watched when researching his father, such as his performance at the Sports Festival. To be able to neutralize the negatives of your quirk with the other half of your quirk is something Tex wishes he could do. As it stands when he goes all out he ends up burning himself severely and risking radiation poisoning if he spends too long going all out.

"Ah, I see, I'm sorry, what's your name? I know I saw it at some point, but I have difficulty with names." Tex puts one hand in a pocket, deciding to just be pleasant and hope that he makes a good impression.

"I'm Shouto, it's an honor to meet you, Castle Bravo." He gives a shallow bow, Tex returns it.

"And I'm Fuyumi, it's an honor." Fuyumi bows a little lower than her brother, the hero returns it with a similar bow.

"It's good to meet the both of you, please, call me Tex." He looks over the three Todorokis in front of him and the fourth involved in what seems to be heated debate with the ninja hero. He can see the resemblance between them now that they're vaguely lined up. "I saw the footage of you at the Sports Festival, impressive stuff. You're lucky to have the quirk you have." He notices Shouto's expression darken just a tiny bit from that comment, before he recovers.

"Thank you, I saw footage of you once when you fought that crystal villain in...I want to say it was Utah?" Shouto pivots the conversation, working to avoid the topic of his own quirk and its genesis.

"Oh yeah, that one." He remembers that, due to the structure of the villain, his body had actually reflected Neutrons, meaning Tex had to be exorbitantly careful to avoid blasting himself with fatal doses of radiation. "Well, all in a day's work." He gives a cocky grin. He doesn't want to reveal the fact that was a battle where he got lucky and managed to hit the Villain at just the right angle to cause a beam of Neutrons to blast right through his heart. Otherwise he was planning on running.

"Seemed like a tough fight from where I was sitting." Endeavor pipes up, having remained quiet for the past several minutes.

"Yes, but so did that fight of yours the other week when you got that scar, we all have days where we're tested, but in the end that's the way the job is." he meets eyes with Endeavor, a cocky grin on his face. In spite of him being similar in age to his Japanese counterpart, he seems to have more energy, despite his greying temples and worn skin.

"True, I guess you are right in that regard." The top Japanese hero furrows his brow a little, both working to speak and understand English and process the nugget of wisdom. He notes the American hero fiddling with his hands a little, seeming nervous. "Do you have something else to say?"

"Actually…" He leans in close to Endeavor's ear, close enough that he's at risk of being burned by his beard. "I need to speak with you in private at some point after this, it's critical to our cooperation." Enji nods, it's common practice for heroes who are planning on teaming up to inform each other of their weaknesses and particular issues. It's actually a requirement of internship at Endeavors agency to disclose Mental Health history and quirk weaknesses so that he can best optimize working with the youths.

"Alright, we're supposed to have a meeting to coordinate hero efforts tomorrow, tell me then." Castle Bravo nods, stepping back, face returning to that cheery disposition that seems to be his default.

"It's been an honor, Endeavor, but I must introduce myself to the other heroes, it would be rude to not introduce myself and then having to do the honors in the field. He gives a nod to Endeavor, Fuyumi, and Shouto before he walks away, tapping Mt. Lady on the shoulder to alert her to his presence, as she'd been checking something on her phone. Enji watches him for a moment before turning back to his children.

"So, how did you manage to convince Natsuo to come?" He glances up at Natsuo, who's gone off to the side to take a phone call.

"He's a bit of a fan of Mount Lady and Edgeshot, so we promised him that he could meet them if he came." Enji nods along to Fuyumi's explanation.

"Alright, that makes sense." He recalls seeing Natsuo wearing an Edgeshot t-shirt on several occasions. Shouto looks at his watch, muttering something under his breath before speaking up.

"If it's alright, I have a few things to do before I head back to school, and curfew's in a couple hours, may I leave?" The way he talks, it seems he'll probably go whether or not Enji approves.

"That's fine, I wouldn't want Eraserhead complaining about your lateness to me." He nods, giving his best attempt at a fatherly smile. "Be careful, some people view wartime as a blank check to cause trouble, since the government is distracted. I know you have your provisional licence, but that doesn't mean that you're immune to getting hurt." His tone turns firm as he speaks, some genuine concern creeping into his voice.

"I won't go into a fight I can't win." enji nods at Shouto's response.

"Then go, and give All Might my regards when you get there." In spite of having held resentment for him for years, at this point, Enji feels that it's more important to learn from All Might at this point.

"I'll make sure to do so." Shouto turns and exits. Enji watches him go, sighing. He'll do his best to bring this to a swift conclusion. While he hopes Shouto will surpass him in achievements, he hopes it will happen in peacetime.


	3. Domino fall

Endeavor takes a sip of his coffee, wincing a bit at the low quality of the coffee on offer at strategic command as he sits alone in a meeting room. His new uniform, made by his design firm, is still stiff from the packaging, just like his hero costume was when he first got it. It makes sense, they're the same material. He turns his eyes to the door as Castle Bravo enters, wearing the same service dress uniform he'd worn the previous day. Under one arm he has a dossier full of papers, many bearing stamps labeled 'top secret'. He takes a seat opposite enji, drawing a pack of marlboros from his pocket and lighting up, taking a slow drag before he begins.

"So, first day on the job for you. I gotta say, digging the uniform." he gestures with his cigarette at Enji's uniform. The Flame hero is dressed in a standard Imperial Japanese Army officer's uniform, the army having re-adopted the old 30's era uniforms for officers. His sword hangs on his left side, so he can cross-draw with his right hand. The brown uniform is well tailored to the hero, fitting like a glove. Enji's normally bushy flaming facial hair has been slimmed down to a more traditional japanese beard and mustache.

"It's a little stiff, but I think it works. Now, let's get down to work, which heroes should we send where?" he leans forward, opening his own dossiers as Tex adjusts a projector projecting a map of the theatre of war onto the table, a number of small tokens indicating militarized heroes are scattered across the table, but most concentrated in Japan right now.

"Well, I believe our services will be best used in Taiwan, alongside Edgeshot, Ryuku, and Thunderclap." Tex moves the appropriate tokens, two American and Three Japanese from Japan to Taiwan, using a pair of long tongs to do so on the large table.

"What about Miruko? She'd be pretty adept in the jungle." enji eyes the token of the bunny-themed hero with the killer kick.

"She's already on the Korean front, and I propose we send in Mount Lady to aid on that front. Intelligence suggests that the Norks don't have any heroes able to stop something of her power." he moves Mt. Lady's token and Miruko's since he'd forgotten to do so initially.

"Seems reasonable." enji nods along. He's no warfare expert, and for once he's willing to yield to professional opinions.

"Alright good." the hero taps his cigarette on the ashtray as his watch beeps. He looks down at it before standing quickly. "I'll be right back, I have some important business to attend to. With that he walks quickly out of the room, leaving Enji alone again. Enji grumbles a bit, disappointed by only attending to such a small part of the board. After a few minutes, the American returns, seeming a little shaken. He sits down at his seat before his prior warmth returns.

"Now, I believe the rest of the Japanese heroes should remain on the japanese mainland, as a Chinese invasion is not off the table at this point." The pro hero pulls out several documents, each one bearing official photos of a Chinese Hero. "These five are unaccounted for, haven't heard radio chatter about them and they haven't been sighted in Korea or Taiwan. I believe that they're being held as a reserve force to strike at the Japanese homeland."

"With that logic, I agree it would be wise to hold the bulk of the Japanese hero community in reserve." In reality Enji's just glad that many heroes won't have to go to the front, he knows most of them simply wouldn't be cut out for warfighting. Himself? He's damaged goods, he's seen death before and he's even inflicted it. It only seems logical that he'd go. "So, what caused you to run out like that?"

"huh?" the Arizonan raises an eyebrow before he remembers what had happened. "Oh, nothing important, just a quick phone call I'd scheduled." Enji nods, he knows for a fact Tex is lying, but he won't pry further.

"Have you got a wife or family back home?" With the real work of the meeting done, Enji wants to get to know his co-worker better.

"Nah, just a little brother nowadays, he's a lawyer, making them good bucks while I'm off saving the country, what about you." he flashes a smile, presumably something he's learned to do instinctually when talking. One could sense pain behind it. Enji decides not to pry, if the hero wants to tell him, he will.

"I have a wife and fo-three children." His breath caught a little mid-sentence when he made that little mistake. Had he put in the past tense, it would have been entirely accurate. Regardless, one must be correct for the present.

"Nice, I always wanted to play the domestic life, I just never had the time." He lets out a dry laugh

"There's always time, you might find somebody." Enji leans back a bit, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, I guess there's time." he does not sound at all optimistic in that regard, Enji guesses he's had bad luck in that department before. Enji stands up, stretching a little.

"If this meeting is over, I'm going to go and get ready to ship out to Taiwan." he collects his hat from the table, resting his hand on his sword pommel.

"I guess we have nothing else to do at the moment. I'll dispatch the orders. Best of luck, General Todoroki." Enji gives a nod of his head before leaving, affixing his cap on his head as he exits the room. Once Enji is out of the room, Tex sighs, looking up at the ceiling. He wishes there were time, he wishes.

About six hundred miles away, Miruko launches herself from tree to tree, crimson eyes flicking through the Korean forest in the search for anything she could take down. She'd volunteered to go with the initial Japanese force that was sent to Korea. Matching pace with her is the number six South Korean hero, Master Dealer, whose quirk allows her to imbue objects below a certain mass with explosive properties. She normally uses playing cards, hence her hero name. The pair had intelligence that there were several Chinese heroes in the area of their patrol.

Far above them, a drone watches, its mechanical eye keeping vigil above the two heroes and feeding information to command, who send information to the pair. The radio crackles to life suddenly.

"be advised, you have two heat signatures of human size up ahead, possibly Lu Xi, the slime and Pu Yan, the bat." at the sounds of that, the rabbit hero's breath quickens a bit, excitement filling her heart at the prospect of a good fight against villains. She was quick to view hostile nation's heroes as villains. Call it aggression, call it Jingoism, but she is willing to go along with the party line if it means she gets to fight. She squints through the trees, spying the pair. They're not trying to hide at the moment, presumably since they'd been told nobody would be patrolling the area. The pair seem to be bent over a map, conversing quietly. The one on the left is a man, his entire body made of a deep blue slime, and the other is a tall woman with bat wings and ears. The two heroes silently draw nearer to their enemies and ready themselves before they pounce. Miruko launches herself with one powerful jump, turning mid-air before her steel-clad foot connects with the winged villain's head with a crack. She collapses to the ground, limp. The Korean descends upon the slimy figure, a hail of exploding playing cards spraying slime around the small clearing and causing the slime-man to scream in surprise. It seems the hail of explosives makes it difficult for him to maintain his coherent shape, causing him to retreat into a ball of slime.

He strikes out with an amorphous limb, attempting to knock the hero off her feet as she lands on the ground. This is responded to with another hail of cards, each imbued with explosive power. Each impact craters the gooey surface, causing him to wiggle uncontrollably and miss.

Miruko stands back. She really cannot fight against a gooey foe, her prior experience with them having just gotten her stuck. After several moments of struggle, the slime suddenly bounces himself out and into the woods, quickly rolling away. The two heroes watch in surprise.

"I wasn't expecting that to happen." The bunny hero looks back down to the person she'd kept pinned under her foot. Of course that wasn't really needed, since the initial kick had rendered her unconscious. "You know, I was led to believe that these Chinese army types were real hardasses. But these two really weren't that bad."

"Well, from our intelligence, they're intelligence gatherers rather than fighters." Master Dealer wipes a bit of slime off her sleeve. Looking down at the incapacitated winged woman. "Think she'll be alright?"

"Maybe, I don't think I hit her hard enough to cause anything crippling, but either way, would it really matter? They were spying bastards anyway." Miruko leans over and picks up her opponent, hoisting her over her shoulder. "It's getting late, I think it would be best if we get back to base. I'm many things but competent in the darkness is not one of them." Master Dealer nods along.

"Seems reasonable." The pair begin making their way back to the outpost they're working out of, unaware of a pair of keen eyes watching them.

"Confirmed, Miruko is on the Korean front, lure 1 was incapacitated and lure 2 managed to escape." The gaunt, semitransparent man watches as the pair leave, his voice just high enough for his microphone to pick up. "She's just as effective as reports suggest, advise the president he'll probably need to deploy someone of great caliber to defeat her. I would recommend Beriev for effect, but that's up to him." The Phantom Hero, Crimson Spectre, ranked number seventeen on the Russian charts, adjusts his position in the tree. The Russian government, while not officially involved in this war, have sent several heroes to the front in secret to provide support to the Chinese and Koreans, whose hero programs were focused on crowd control and occupation rather than the Russians, whose almost sole focus was the elimination of villains and assassination of heroes in wartime.

"I'll pass the information along to him, thank you very much." Brigadier general Kirov hangs up the phone as he leans back in his chair. Mission control for the Russian heroes in the conflict, located in Vladivostok in an anonymous office building, is a quiet place. Most of the day staff are out of the building by this time, with the night crew being the quiet, taciturn types who are always running black ops missions. Kirov wrinkles his nose. He's never been a fan of Beriev, also known as the Cataclysm Hero, Tunguska. His methods are just...unpleasant, but he's under orders to pass all field recommendations up the chain. He picks up the phone and dials.

Several thousand miles away, the Russian President takes a bite from the sandwich he'd ordered to his office for lunch, flicking his eyes over a draft of a speech he's to make later that day. He puts down his Egg Salad on Rye when he sees his phone ringing. After a moment of wiping his hand, he picks up the phone, eyes still on the speech.

"My President, I just received the field report from Crimson Spectre, he has confirmed that Miruko, the no.5 Japanese hero is active and engaging in combat operations on the Korean Front, he recommends deploying Beriev. Whether it's to make a statement or because she's that strong is unclear." The president nods along, his brow furrowing a bit.

"In my personal opinion, the only Heroes in the active alliance who would be big enough that Beriev would be needed, at least from my understanding, would be Castle Bravo and Endeavor, but they're still on the Japanese Mainland." A thin smile spreads across the president's face. "Of course, needed and desired are two different things. I'm going to send him into the theater, under complete secrecy of course." The president, while talking, pulls up a few online pages about Miruko to read as he talks. "I think this little bunny would make a great warm-up for him for when the real troublesome heroes show up, don't you think?"

"If that's your advice sir, I'll await him at this office." Kirov grips his pen tightly, not having expected this result. Beriev and he, in addition to not having good professional opinions of each other, don't like each other personally.

"No need, He'll remain under my direct command, and operate independently of other Heroes." The president makes a couple notes on a piece of paper as an aide brings him a document on an upcoming state visit. "Call me back if anything else is needed, Kirov" He puts the phone down, turning to address the issue at hand.

Kirov shakily puts down the phone. It's one thing to have Beriev under your command, but to have him running amok in the theatre is another thing. He glances at a picture that hand fallen from a folder on his desk. It's a picture of the Rabbit hero, taken at the airport as she was boarding the plane to Korea several days prior.

"Poor girl, she doesn't know what's coming." He pulls out a cigarette, lighting it with his quirk, which allows him to make his fingertips red-hot. He takes a deep drag, eyes drifting to the window as he lets the smoke out. "May god have mercy on your soul."

"I forgot how heavy wings make people." Miruko throws the unconscious Chinese hero from her shoulder onto the Infirmary bed, grunting a little .She stretches a bit as the doctor begins to look over the bat-winged Prisoner and a Japanese MP handcuffs her to the bed to prevent escape before she can be transported farther from the front. The Rabbit hero walks out into the open, breath fogging in front of her as she looks up at the sky. One could hear the distant rumble of artillery from the Demilitarized zone, a mere twenty miles north of the outpost. Master Dealer had been accosted by several Korean fans and she's currently signing autographs. After all, a big part of putting heroes at the front is to give a big morale boost to the troops. Miruko begins to make her way to her own quarters to check the news and enjoy a drink when a pair of Japanese soldiers excitedly run over to her. She quickly puts on a winning smile to replace the initial peeved wince she had when she first saw them.

"Miruko! We heard you were on the front but we didn't realize you were _here_!" The two soldiers stand a little taller than her, bouncing a little with excitement. From the looks and nametags, they're probably brothers.

"We're huge fans of yours." The second holds up his rifle, revealing a couple of Miruko and Mt. Lady charms hanging from it. The first produces a piece of paper and a pen from a pocket.

"I know you've probably had a long day, but would you be so kind as to autograph this for us?" The two bow, the one holding out the pen and paper keeping his hand extended.

The hero lets out a deep laugh, putting on her public persona as she takes the pen and paper. "It's no problem, anything for the fans. What are your names, so I can address this right?" The two excited look to one another, before returning to a standing position. The first one to have spoken, being someone skinnier with brown eyes answers.

"I'm Hoashi Karou, and this is my little brother, Hoashi Ryu." He wraps one arm around his brother. Miruko nods, quickly writing 'to my biggest fans, Ryu and Karou' on the paper before handing it back.

"So, since you two seem to not be on duty right now, wanna grab something to drink at the base's bar and chat?" She'd been planning on drinking anyway, but it's always better to do with company. The two nod enthusiastically. Soon enough they're on their way to the quickly-assembled, American-Run bar, the hero answering the pair's eager questions about hero work as they go.


	4. Unfortunate Son

The wind whips across the runway, a light drizzle sizzling against Endeavor's Hero costume as the raindrops strike him. The rain, while annoying, isn't enough to impede the mission at hand. He looks over at Edgeshot, who's walking alongside him, a parachute strapped over his hero costume. Overnight, the situation in Taiwan deteriorated from manageable to critical when the Chinese launched a major offensive spearheaded by armored forces and their quirk-using forces. Therefore, it was determined that immediate deployment of heroes into the fray was the optimum, thus here they are, walking across a runway an hour before dawn towards a blacked-out cargo plane alongside an American special forces unit. Enji looks over the Special operations men, most of them having covered their faces with sunglasses and their oxygen masks for the jump. All of them are wearing uniforms, but most of them have accessorized to some degree with scarves and small charms. Oddly enough none of them have name tags or unit markings. The two American heroes, unlike their three Japanese counterparts, are dressed in military uniform.

Castle Bravo is in his full hero costume: A flight jumpsuit with a cowboy hat and boots, a pair of goggles, currently worn around his neck, and a pair of heavy-looking gauntlets. He has an earpiece in his left ear, the wire running down to a radio on his belt. He has a parachute strapped to his back along with an oxygen bottle, the regulator hooked to his chest. He has a cigarette clamped between his teeth, not yet lit. The raindrops leave a spread of dark spots across his hat, making it look like the hide of some adorable forest animal. Him and another American hero, wearing a grey camouflage uniform with lightning bolt patches are in an animated conversation. Enji's not paying particular attention, more focusing on his own jump equipment: a small oxygen tank and mask attached to his chest. They're strapped to his belt, alongside the sword he'd received several days prior, which has some modifications to work with his quirk. He glances over at Ryuko, who's just checking some strap on her costume.

"Are you ready, Tatsuma?" she jolts, surprised to hear someone address her by name. She looks over at Endeavor, sucking air through her teeth.

"I would say yes, but can anybody really be ready?" She looks over the others, now piling into the aircraft.

"Well, they seem as ready as anyone can be." Enji gestures at the American special forces, many of whom are pulling out their phones and mp3 players to put on some music to listen to for the flight. He also points out Thunderhead and Castle Bravo, who are in the midst of a friendly chat about the previous evening's outing. From the sound of it they'd been enjoying the perks of being pro heroes, like free drinks at bars and female attention. Ryuko nods.

"Well, they're professional soldiers, they've trained for this. We signed up to save people." She sighs, somewhat glad that the Americans can't understand the two Japanese heroes as they take their seats on the red mesh jump seats. Edgeshot joins them a moment later, lowering himself next to endeavor.

"We have a duty here and now, if you try to shirk it at least don't get in everyone's way." Enji looks down at the other hero, his beard brightening to emphasize the point. "As heroes we made a commitment to protect our homeland, to strive to be the shield against all that would seek to destroy everything our predecessors built." Some of the Americans look over, intrigued by the firm speech Endeavor gives.

"I'm not saying that I'm not going to fight, I'm just saying that this isn't what I signed up for." She grumbles as she crosses her arms, leaning back. Edgeshot taps Enji to get his attention.

"Just to be clear, I do not have such misgivings. My nation called and I answered." Enji nods, affirming Edgeshot. He winces a bit at the volume as the engines start up, the ramp closing with a low mechanical whine. Once the door is closed, the volume is reasonable, and conversation resumes. Castle Bravo leans in close to Enji, so he can speak without yelling.

"What was all that about? You two got some dirty laundry?" The American flashes a cheeky grin.

"No, just a misunderstanding." The American nods, understanding. Enji flicks his eyes to the other American hero, who's chatting with the soldier next to him, who seems to be a fan.

"So, what's his quirk? I've never heard of him before yesterday's meeting." Enji hadn't yet been given the dossiers on his American co-workers

"Well, his quirk is called hammerfist. He can throw punches at supersonic speed, his forearms are also harder than steel and cannot feel...well, pain is the main selling point, but basically he can't feel anything in them. He's a little sensitive about that. Funnily enough he inherited his grandfather's hero name. That guy, don't know if you heard of him but he used to be the American Number One, he could control and summon storm clouds. Too bad he got paralyzed." Tex always had a problem that he gets a little chatty when psyching himself up for battle. Enji nods along, welcoming the distraction from what lies ahead. "Anyways, that makes him the second Thunderhead, and he's damn good at it. What're you, number...twelve on the US Charts?" Tex turns to the other hero.

"Twelve on the monthly, but Eleven on the Weekly." Tex nods and turns back to Enji

"Yeah, he's good at this." Tex cocks his head at Endeavor's facial hair. He silently takes the unlit cigarette from his mouth. "You wouldn't mind if I-" He extends his hand, pressing the tip into the flame beard, pulling back and taking a drag. Enji remains completely neutral through this. He notices Enji's default expression of a slight, bored frown. "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend."  
"No, no, it's fine, a lot of fans do it for social media videos at outdoors meet-and-greets." Enji sighs, rubbing his eye with one gloved fist. "I'm just somewhat tired is all."

"Oh, still not used to the military lifestyle?" Tex smirks, taking another drag as he braces, feeling the place pulling into the air.

"Does one really get used to it?" Enji sighs, resting one hand on his sword.

"Fuck no. Well, not combat at least, but the routine? Yeah one gets used to it. You should know you never get used to fighting. You can make it so you're not nervous, but it still affects you." Enji nods, understanding perfectly.

They continue their quiet conversation as the airplane reaches its cruising altitude. The flight is uneventful. Eventually, Tex glances out the window and notices that they're over land.

"I think we might be close to the drop zone." His words are confirmed by a red light coming on with a buzz next to the ramp, the door slowly sliding open. In response, the special forces men work with their oxygen, many getting the masks firmly attached. Enji grabs his, and after a few moments of fumbling, he puts out his beard and mustache, strapping the oxygen mask to his face. He looks to his sides and confirms Edgeshot has his. Ryuko doesn't require one, considering her dragon form. Tex casually flicks the fourth cigarette he'd smoked during the several hour flight into the growing windstream out of the aircraft. He straps his mask on, using the upper strap to secure his hat as he stands. The other Heroes stand with him. They're supposed to drop first before the aircraft veers farther into occupied territory to deploy the Black ops team.

"Now, remember, those of you who need a parachute, such as myself, you're gonna want to deploy your chute at 3,000 feet, that little watch you got this morning will beep when you reach that height." Enji grunts, he can slow himself with his quirk, using his flames like a rocket engine, thus eliminating his need for a parachute. Ryuko can fly, so Edgeshot is the only one who needs it...unless.

"Edgeshot, have you considered using your quirk to attach yourself to myself or Ryuko to prevent you from needing to use the parachute?" Enji looks down at his fellow hero, who thinks for a moment, chin in hand.  
"That makes sense, would you mind if I were to stow myself in your belt pouch?" he points to the pouch on endeavor's belt, which he normally keep handcuffs and medical supplies in. He looks down at the currently-empty pouch.

"I guess that would work." He opens the white bag, holding it open as the hero unfurls himself into the bag, filling it perfectly. Enji snaps it shut so that he won't fall out in the middle of the descent. Tex, satisfied with everyone's preparations, makes his way towards the ramp, boot heels clicking on the metal floor. He adjusts a dial on one gauntlet, tuning it so that he has a fine focus and a wide focus hand for his blasts. With that done he loiters at the top of the ramp, holding out his arm to keep the other heroes back as he watches the light.

After a few moments, the light turns green with another buzz, and Tex smiles behind his mask. He quickly crosses himself before he runs off the ramp, one hand holding his hat as jumps. Endeavor follows, putting out the flames on his body as he goes to prevent himself from being a falling beacon to enemies with good aim. The other two heroes follow shortly behind. Enji keeps his eyes on the ground, watching the jungle with keen eyes. Smoke billows from several points where the fighting has led to fires.

He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment after they fill with tears from the wind. The ground races up towards him. He glances over at Castle Bravo, about a hundred feet ahead of him. As the ground comes closer and closer, The American checks his watch, moving one hand to the ripcord. After a few moments, he pulls it, shooting up rapidly from Enji's perspective. The sound of a parachute and wings opening above indicates that the other two have started slowing themselves. Enji gets into position for his own braking maneuver, flipping in the air so that he's hurtling feet first towards the ground. He plummets for a few more seconds before he tears the mask from his face, tossing it and the oxygen bottle aside to prevent an explosion. WIth a subtle movement, his shoulders, boots, and facial hair roar back into life.

Endeavor inhales deeply, the cold air tickling his throat as he lights his hands. With his exhale, he projects two bright streams of flame from his hands, creating effectively two rocket engines on his arms. To observers on the ground, it would look like a comet reversing towards the ground. He slows down gradually, his flames tearing into the trees as he floats down. About fifteen feet before the ground, the strain of holding his fire blast overcomes him and he cuts it off, landing and rolling on impact. He stands after a moment, leaning one hand on a tree, the bark smoking as the heat slowly leeches from his hands. He shakes the one not holding the tree wincing a bit at the stinging within the hand, he's done launches with the quirk, but slowing down is a whole different ball game. He uses the free hand to open the pouch, and Edgeshot unfolds out, appearing in a blur of movement. He straightens his costume and wipes his brow.

"While that was a good way to get to the ground quickly, it was not the most comfortable enji nods, glancing upwards.

"we might want to move." he gestures up at the flaming canopy above them, his fellow hero looks up as well, blanching a little.

"That seems like a good idea." The pair take off at a jog through the woods, making their way towards the rendezvous point. After a few moments, Edgeshot taps Endeavor on the shoulder. "You hear that?"

"What?" He comes to a stop, and then he hears it, the distant sound of people moving through the brush, along with the rumble of an Infantry Fighting Vehicle. Endeavor and Edgeshot slowly creep through the brush towards the sound, eventually gaining line of sight on around Twenty soldiers, led by someone in what looks like a Hero costume picking their way through the brush. Presumably they're looking for Endeavor and Edgeshot, since their entrance had been…less than subtle.

"Think you can take it down? I can handle the infantry if you do." Endeavor points at the IFV, glancing over at his fellow hero.

"Of course. On the count of three?" Edgeshot prepares himself to strike.

"Sounds like a plan." Enji whispers, before he turns back to plan out his strikes. "One."

"Two" The pair tense up, readying to leap as they ready.

"Three." With that they strike, the Ninja hero folding himself knife thin as he darts from the brush through a viewport on the vehicle with a sharp crack. At the same time Endeavor stands. He raises both hands and lets forth two great gouts of flame. The orange, red, and yellow fire leaps from his hands, racing through the air and crashing into the chinese troops. Most of them had been turning to face the crack they'd heard before being hit. Surprisingly, Endeavor doesn't hear the sound of the soldiers crying out in surprise and horror and pain as they burn. The sound of his flames overwhelms oxygen-starved cries. What does hit him is the smell. The acrid scent of blood, muscle, hair and fat burning together in his flames. He swallows down the rising bile, it had been a long time since he'd smelled burning death in such quantities. The percussive roar of hundreds of rounds of ammunition cooking off overpowers the roar of the fires, sporadic and harsh.

After around a minute, endeavor cuts off the flame, he sucks in air through his mouth, noting that the humid jungle heat had been replaced with a dry, acrid heat. Where the soldiers had stood, there are merely a number of blackened masses, the most coherent ones being somewhat recognizable as human. The ones who'd been in the center of the inferno, which had scorched the ground to the soil, are in worse states, being reduced to charred piles of cracked bones, melted equipment and sticky ash. The Chinese Hero, who'd been closest to endeavor is practically all gone, the melted remains of his belt buckle and helmet the only signs he'd been there apart from the ashes. The Hero tries not to look, but he can't resist. As he looks over the vista, the sight and smell combined make him retch.

Enji falls to his knees, grasping his stomach as he vomits, his mostly-liquid breakfast splattering against the ground, the normally overpowering smell of vomit covered by the smell of burning. As Enji stands, a few sputtering coughs leaving his mouth, Edgeshot emerges from the tank, blood spattered against his robes. He puts his hand to his mouth, cheeks inflating as he holds back his own, admittedly leaner breakfast. He succeeds, swallowing with a disgusted expression. He curses under his breath, he'd known Endeavor was powerful, but not like this. Then he remembers his fellow and jumps out of the vehicle, minimizing his contact with the still-smoking ground to put an arm around the larger man, who still seems shaken.

"Enji, Enji! Are you alright? Did they get you?" He presumes the fellow hero's wincing is from being hit.

"N-no, just...I forgot what it smelled like." He looks up, focusing on the jungle ahead. "We've gotta move, they probably saw that. That and Tex is probably waiting at the rendezvous point." He starts walking, skirting around the grim tableaux, but he can't help but glance back. He's certain that this moment is going to be permanently engraved on his mind. In a minute he'd tripled his lifetime bodycount. The worst part is that he's not even certain they deserved it.

"How can you be certain he's going to be on his way there?" Edgeshot looks up at Endeavor, the slightest hint of nerves in his voice. As he asks, an incandescent blue beam shoots into the sky at a sharp angle. Endeavor points at it.

"That's how, I've seen the footage, and if we follow the beams, we'll find Tex." He takes off at a jog, keeping his eyes level and his mind on the job.


	5. Shaded Encounters

"ENDEAVOR DEPLOYED TO TAIWAN" The headline scrolls across the screen as news commentators discuss the possible repercussions of sending such a notoriously hotheaded hero into an actual combat situation. The camera pans over aerial footage of burning jungle. Tomura Shigaraki watches, his nose wrinkling behind Father.

"And here I was thinking I could publically destroy him." He mutters, idly spinning a quirk-destroying bullet between two fingers before putting it back in its box. "What a shame." He leans back in his chair, glancing around the warehouse, right now only Toga and Mister Compress are around, playing checkers. They both seem bored of it. With a war on, most villains got excited, many indulging in their preferred crimes in the mistaken belief that the Heroes would be distracted. Many have already been beaten, arrested, or lynched, some of them having had all three happen. With the nationalistic fervor, the police have become a lot less strict with regards to vigilante justice, leading many people to use their quirks against anyone who causes problems and often villains would find themselves confronted by an angry mob, who would often barely allow police in to take the villain away. It's rumored one villain who'd tried mugging a middle-school student had been found in many pieces.

Thus, Shigaraki had chosen to stay in the shadows. While it's harder to be a villain in the light, it's much easier to hide when a war's on and the chaos surrounding it prevents the sort of espionage that would normally occur against organized villains. Of course, most of the villains are out right now, doing errands and keeping tabs on things. He hears the sound of something scuffing behind him. He looks slowly, expecting one of the other two villains in the room, instead he sees the grotesque visage of some sort of demon. He instinctively lunges at it when it suddenly vanishes. He pauses, looking around nervously to find it has reappeared, seated on a bar stool the villains had set up around the common area. He realizes that terrifying face was merely a gas mask, being worn by a somewhat lean, average height man in a scab-red overcoat with grey camouflage pants and black boots. The man looks over at Shigaraki, one could almost feel a smile behind the ghastly mask, perhaps it's the slight creasing of his eyes in the lenses.

"I'm sorry about my sudden appearance, but I felt knocking on the door wouldn't work. My bosses have a proposal for you. Of course, that's if you choose not to come at me with that quirk of yours again, Tomura." The man's Russian-accented Japanese is odd to listen to, especially given his odd way of phrasing things.

"What's preventing me from going at you again for breaking into our headquarters." Shigaraki cocks his head, fingers twitching a little.

"Well, I could just vanish again, or if you get a grasp on me, this might help." He turns on the stool to fully face Shigaraki and lets his coat fall open, revealing that he's wearing a suicide vest packed with enough plastic explosives to instantly kill everyone in the room. He also pulls his hand from a pocket, revealing the dead-hand switch. "But this is a mere formality."

"I'm listening." While Shigaraki's furious at this man for having outplayed his opening moves, he has to respect the balls it takes to waltz into the League of Villain's headquarters with a bomb strapped to your chest.

"Well then, My bosses want you to...tell us what is worth eliminating within Japan." His Japanese, while functional, is very basic.

"Like what? And what will we get in exchange?" Shigaraki cocks his head, one crimson eye shining behind Father.

"Oh, we'd just like to know which buildings are actually important to Japanese hero culture, particularly academic buildings, if you understand my idea. As for what you get in exchange...we may be able to return your precious leader." The Russian is obviously smiling wide behind his mask at this point. "Also, do you know english?"

"What do you mean? I'm the leader...and yes, yes I do." Shigaraki switches to the other language, his own pronunciation as if he were used to reading it rather than speaking.

"What I'm getting at is that my bosses are middlemen for information to the Chinese and North Korean governments. Also, don't lie to yourself, we know that the villain that All Might fought, prompting his retirement, is the real leader here." Shigaraki's nose wrinkles, he hadn't expected this mysterious figure to know so much. The other two villains have noticed the intruder at this point and are standing some distance away, they've seen the suicide vest and they're not quite sure how to approach this.

"What do you mean 'Return'? As far as we know he's in an unbreakable cell in an unbreakable prison." Shigaraki's voice gains an aggressive edge. He may have his moments, but he's not going to fall for someone just waltzing in and making impossible promises...well, maybe not _impossible_.

"Unbreakable is a strong word. I'll give you a couple days to consider, then I'll be back." With that, he disappears, and Shigaraki is left thinking. Toga stumbles a little to one side, seemingly for no reason. He looks over at the other two villains.

"Tell our informant that I want as much information about UA's layout as possible. If that's all that devil wants for a shot at having sensei back, we'll have to try." He returns to his seat, eyes going to the news, where they're interviewing Miruko about the Korean front.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? Murder, robbery, kidnapping, that's typical stuff, but High Treason? I think they get inventive if they catch you doing that." Mr. Compress sucks air through his teeth, rubbing the back of his head with his one hand.

"We're not going to be caught. We literally got two infiltrators into U.A.! How hard would it be to just give some of our information to the Russian?" Shigaraki groans, somewhat annoyed. "This war threw a wrench into most of my plans, so I'm taking us on a side quest, just to see what happens." To be honest, this is partially out of respect for the sheer courage he'd seen. Anybody that bold has to have something useful for the League, or at least a plan with regards to Tartarus.

Dmitri Fyodorovich flicks the arming switch on his bomb off and pulls off his gas mask, his messy brown hair flopping free. He buttons back up his coat as he walks down the street. Overall, he thinks his introduction to the league went well. His threat of force was well-received and understood. He hadn't planned on even using the bomb, just using his quirk to slip away if Shigaraki had lunged again. He raises his arm, hailing down a taxi and bundling into the back seat.

"The Westin please." He leans back in the back seat of the taxi, pulling out a cell phone. He dials and puts the phone to his ear.

"This is Kirov's office" The secretary chirps behind the phone.

"This is Fyodorovich, can you put the brigadier on for me?" He maintains a light-hearted tone, as if he were a businessman fresh from a meeting. The line buzzes for a moment before it's picked up again.

"Fyodorovich. How'd it go?" Kirov adjusts some papers on his desk, leaning back in his chair.

"I made contact with the League of villains, I made the offer, and I'll return in a couple days to meet with them again." He watches the street go by, thinking. "Also, Is Beriev being deployed?"

"I received word that he landed at Pyongyang three hours ago, and had a meeting with Korean People's Army Supreme command, presumably brining some sort of info from moscow. He's under direct Presidential orders, so I have no idea what he's gonna do." Kirov sounds agitated, it makes sense, the last time he'd met with Beriev, he'd nearly been defenestrated.

"So, guessing I won't be seeing him personally?" Dmitri allows himself a small smile. The Phantom Hero and the Cataclysm hero don't get along too well personally, in spite of the great deal of professional respect between the two.

"If you're lucky." Kirov lets out a dry laugh, almost a cough.

"How encouraging, Well, if there's nothing else, I'll get off the phone, Spectre out." He hangs up, putting his phone back in his pocket. Once his car ride concludes, he pays the Taxi driver in cash and steps out. He walks quickly to the elevator, giving a quick nod to anyone who greets him. Once he's in his room, he sighs in relief, before he takes off his coat and the suicide vest, leaving him in a white and blue striped tank top with his pants and boots.

The Russian hero puts on the news, flopping down into the comfy bed. It's a terrible idea to not stay informed.

Several hundred miles away, Sergei Beriev is indulging himself. One gauntleted hand is wrapped around the wrist of a Japanese soldier he'd caught alone, holding him up so that his feet dangle a little above the ground.

"Now, either you can tell me the patrol pattern of Miruko and Master Dealer, or I will destroy this arm as well." For emphasis he uses his free hand to gesture at the shattered ruins of the Man's other arm, which had been hit directly by the Cataclysm Hero's quirk. The man whimpers, staring into the blank lenses of the Russian's helmet, simultaneously silent and mocking him for his weakness. Behind that mask, the Cataclysm Hero licks his lips, hoping this man will resist a little longer. Hoping he'll need to use his quirk again.

"F-Fuck you." the man spits in the masks face, a look of spite on his face as he hardens his resolve.

"Oh, you'd love that, wouldn't you." Sergei chuckles as he activates his quirk, a slight pulse of vibration shoots down the arm before the true pulse hits, the raw force shattering every bone into shards, ruptured every blood vessel, and reduced muscle to mush. The hero drops the screaming man, crouching next to him. "If you want to walk again, you're going to answer the question." That seems to do it, and the man breaks down weeping, staring at his ruined arms as he starts blabbing...in Japanese. Sergei does not know Japanese, and he slams a steel-shod foot into the man's side.

"English, you whelp." he stares down at the man, mind unconsciously racing with possibilities of what he could do to him.

"s-sorry. Th-they take the forest path north from Smith Forward Station and generally return around dusk." the man's English is heavily accented, but understandable. Sergei nods, mentally recording the information.

"Good, was that so hard?" he uses one finger to lift up the mans chin smiling reassuringly behind his helmet. "unfortunately I can't leave any witnesses that can place me here." before the soldier can respond Sergei's hand is wrapped around his lower face.

"It's been a fun time that I've had with you, but I must go, Schastlivogo puti!" the normally friendly way of saying farewell takes a far more sinister air when said through a sadistic rictus grin. An initial pulse rushed through the man, sounding like the lowest note on a synthesizer being distorted before the real pulse hits. In the second pulse, the majority of the soldier is almost instantly reduced to small shards as it is launched at high speed, the trees behind him being perforated with high velocity bone and painted with transsonic viscera. Just the front of the man's uniform and his legs below the knee remain. Sergei picks up the uniform glancing at the nametag.

"Hoashi, interesting last name." with that Sergei stands, stretches, and starts making his way to the copse he'd set camp in, dropping the uniform shard behind himself. His powered armor whines a little with each movement. He sighs, he's been tinkering on that for a while and he has yet to figure out a way to silence the armor. He mulls over the man he'd just painted the forest with. He was good enough looking, probably fit. A pang of regret flits through the mind of the Russian.

"What was I thinking, there was so much _more_ I could've done with him, or at least I could killed him without destroying his body." Sergei tuts to himself, but that smile returns when he remembers what he was going to be doing the next day. It'll be fine, he'll have more playmates soon enough, even if he didn't make the best use of his last one.

After this revelation his mood picks up massively. He whistles as he strolls through the woods, a small bounce in his step.

Back where he destroyed the soldier, another man is looking for him.

"Karou? Where are you? We gotta get back to base soon, otherwise we're gonna be on latrine duty...again." Hoashi Ryu picks through the brush, looking for his brother who'd told him ten minutes prior he had to answer nature's call. He stumbles as his feet bump into something. He looks down and he redoubles his calls, desperation in his voice. The object that has caused him so much distress is an assault rifle, festooned with a few charms of Miruko and Mt. Lady, Karou's favorite heroes.

Ryu takes off at a job, searching the woods, breath hitching as he scans around him, hoping that his brother had just been lazy and dropped the gun. His hopes are dashed as he stumbles again. When he looks down at the object he stumbled on, he has to stop himself from vomiting. The pair of legs, well, more accurately shins and feet are just sitting there on the ground, as if their owner just vanished while kneeling down. When Ryu looks up from it, he Realizes where their owner had gone, from the slick red covering on the trees behind the shattered remains and the bone shrapnel embedded in it. Ryu collapses to his knees in shock, before he notices the uniform scrap. He desperately scrambles over to it, praying that the name tag doesn't say what he knows it will say. After a moment's hesitation he turns over the ruined shirt. He's silent, mouth silently moving as his mind tries to rationalize exactly what he's seeing. Of course, one really can't rationalize what's just happened, so he just hugs the shirt close, breaking down to sobs as several other soldiers jog up to see what's happening.


	6. Exchange of secrets

Enji lets out his breath slowly, One boot pressing onto the back of a chinese Hero, whose quirk was written as an ability to project noxious gas from his hands. During their fight, Enji'd figured out that it was really coming from the skin on the palms on his hands. You can't use the skin on your hands if it's burned off, so Endeavor had done what's logical, and when he had the opening, he'd burned the man's palms to the bone. The whimpering man struggles under Enji's boot, trying in vain to escape. Enji looks around, sighing at the devastation that had befallen the small town they'd fought in. Many of the buildings were ablaze and the sharp scent of the toxic gas still lingers. The soldiers that accompanied him run up, cheering Endeavor on. They'd been on patrol when the Enemy had ambushed them by using his gas as a smokescreen. Most of the soldiers have their gas masks around their necks, since the threat has been neutralized. Most of their uniforms are stained with soot from wherever they'd been hiding. The team leader, a young American Lieutenant walks up to face Endeavor Directly.

"We called in the helicopter evac, sir, They'll be at the edge of town in five minutes." Endeavor nods, thinking for a moment.

"Then I think we should get moving, and stay alert, we don't know whether more enemies could come and I don't think I could get in too many fights." Enji grits his teeth a bit, the burning in his palms and fever-like feeling almost confirms it. Unless he has a long rest or a lot of water, he's not going to be able to operate at full strength, since he's been using his quirk heavily that day to clear out brush and in the last fight that had lasted for at least twenty minutes of cat and mouse fighting.

The soldiers nod along, raising their rifles and fanning out so their formation goes all the way across the street. They understand that the hero has limits, and that he's at his most vulnerable right now. He lifts the smaller hero over his shoulder, putting out his flames to prevent him from being burned further as he hauls him behind the troops to the edge of town. The journey is uneventful, as the Chinese Hero's support had been routed at this point. About the time that the team arrives at the edge of the town, the three helicopters pass overhead, making a turn before two set down, the third hanging around to cover them should another attack come. As soon as the two helicopters land, the soldiers take off from the edge of the town at a jog, minimizing the time they need to be in the open. Endeavor follows, quickly following the example of the soldiers by jumping into the helicopter.

He throws the prisoner onto the helicopter floor as it lifts off, two soldiers quickly bind him as the medic takes a look at his hands. The flight is short and uneventful, with them landing at the outpost fifteen minutes after climbing aboard. The Military police are waiting and take the Chinese hero under arrest as Enji stretches and walks towards the command tent to submit a report of events.

He signs a couple autographs for some off-duty soldiers before he finally arrives at the tent, ducking under the door and looking around. The interior of the command tent is bustling with American and Japanese officers, their movements coordinated as they work with documents and dispatches. Several notice and salute Enji as he walks to the central table, covered in maps and other such things. He taps the radio operator on the shoulder. The haggard Japanese specialist looks up before he sees the flame hero towering above him.

"S-Sir, what do you need?" He takes off his headphones that he'd been listening to general chatter with to hear Endeavor talk.

"Could you take down my report of today's operations and send them to supreme command?" Enji remains calm. In spite of his irritation and fatigue, he wants to seem professional in front of the men, keep their spirits up. He quickly relays the information to the radio operator. The man takes down the notes and nods when finished. After that, Enji exits the tent, shielding his eyes against the sun as he makes his way to get some food at the officer's mess.

He settles into a seat near the edge. It's sort of accepted that one doesn't interfere with the heroes when they're eating. He quietly eats, extinguishing his flames so he doesn't accidentally melt the plastic silverware he'd been given. After a few moments he sighs and closes his eyes, rubbing at the bridge of his nose with his fingers. Ever since he'd been sent to Taiwan, his sleep's suffered, he's not sure if it's his conscience or just stress. Being sent out with small fighting groups to eliminate Chinese heroes is a draining exercise in repetition. Most of these guys seem to not really have individualized training for their quirk, instead having been trained to go all-out on attack and remain loyal to the party. Of course, he'd bumped into a few heroes from other countries who'd been sent as military aid, and they'd been genuinely competent, especially the South African and Russian Heroes he'd fought earlier that week.

His thinking is interrupted by the sounds of cowboy boot heels clicking towards him followed by the thump of a large ass landing in the seat opposite him. Enji opens his eyes to see Castle Bravo across from him, the other hero carrying that trademark grin on his face.

"Hello Enji, how's it been?"He takes a drag from his cigarette, smiling around it as he puts out a hand to shake for Enji. Enji takes it, hand slinking across the table to shake the American's. Enji isn't really in the mood to deal with the unrelentingly positive and cocky man at this point in time. He hopes his expression makes that clear.

"It's been, how are things for you Tex?" Enji takes another bite of his meal, eyes remaining on Tex's face.

"Oh, they've been exciting, been doing a lot of fighting, getting my daily dose of alpha, beta, and gamma, y'know." He does look tanner than usual. He's not wearing his usual gauntlets, his scarred-up hands grab his fork and knife as he digs into the lasagna that had been serve for lunch.

"Makes sense." Enji sighs, guessing he's going to have to deal with Tex for a fair while. He decides to make some good conversation. "It's interesting how much progress we've made, seems the Japan/US/Commonwealth intervention was more than they were expecting when they invaded here."

"Yeah, Well, to be fair, their hero support is lacking to say the least, excluding the boys sent in by foreign powers." Tex takes a bite, chewing quickly before swallowing. "Well, they view their heroes as Reusable munitions more than individual assets. I'm worried about the Russians to be honest, those guys are basically trained to be assassins who target powerful quirk users. Have you heard about Tunguska?"

"Isn't that the man the Russian government keeps off the hero rankings?" Enji takes a bite of his own lasagna, listening intently to Tex.

"Yeah, I heard rumors that they might have sent him to Korea." Tex keep his voice low, to avoid anybody else hearing them.

"They're probably just rumors, the Kremlin wouldn't risk an asset like that on a static front like Korea. Not unless they have plans to " enji takes a sip of his water, humming a bit.

"Well, you never kno-" Tex would finish his statement, but he's interrupted by a vicious cough. He brings his sleeve to cover his mouth. His coughing fit lasts a good forty seconds before he pulls his arm away, panting. Enji wouldn't have begrudged him it, except for the red stain on the sleeve and the droplets on the table. Enji looks at Tex in disbelief.

"W-what?" He's speechless, not having expected this sudden turn of events. "Were you hit? Are you sick?!"

"Yeah, I guess I should explain myself. You honestly should know this, since we work closely. It's a dirty secret, but it makes logical sense. I'm not immune to my own quirk, I've known this for years, and even though I've been careful, sometimes life just takes a shit on you." Tex sighs, slumping a bit as he lays himself bare.

"What are you getting at?" Concern tinges Enji's tone, despite Tex being only a few years younger than him, he feels his paternal instincts kicking in for the Hero.

"I'm more cancerous than a Make-a Wish waiting list." He forces a smile, he's accepted this fact of his life a fair while ago.

"You're still fighting? Shouldn't you be in the hospital?" Enji cocks his eyebrow, he's astounded that Tex is still working in spite of his current condition.

"Well, the way it was when the docs caught it, all treatment would do is make me a bedridden husk and buy me a few months. I'd rather die blasting my country's enemies than in some hospital somewhere." He builds his smile back up, voice filled with determination. "Please don't tell anybody, I want to stay strong for the public."

"I'll keep your secret." Enji is familiar with having to keep information to himself, so holding Tex's dearest secret won't be too hard, he thinks. "Who else knows?"

"My doctor, and my Brother." He sighs, He's being totally honest, the list of people who know his exact health situation is exceedingly small, and he wants to keep it that way.

"I see." Enji flicks his eyes up at the distant rumble of what must be either Artillery or a bomb. The sound fades as the echoes disperse. "You know, they seem to be getting farther away."

"Well, the front is advancing." Tex lights a cigarette, taking a nice deep drag. Enji looks at him skeptically. "Look, they can't give me more cancer than I already have." He grimly laughs as Enji admits he's correct internally.  
"Well, it's a little off-putting." Enji finishes his meal, looking across the table as he rests his elbow on the table.

"Perhaps." Tex takes another drag and enjoys another bite of his meal. The two heroes continue quietly talking, enjoying a few moments of quiet before they have to return to the grind of war once more.

Back on the Japanese Mainland, Dmitri lights up a cigarette, strolling back to the same warehouse he'd walked into a few days prior. His quirk allows him to go unnoticed as he makes his way to the location. He sidesteps a teenager listening to music, and ends up bumping into...something. He stops for a moment, looking around to find what he'd collided with, it felt like a person, but he can't see anything. After a moment of confusion, he continues walking, arriving at the hideout a minute or so later. He deactivates his quirk, strolling in and knocking on a structural support to alert the villains as to his presence.

Shigaraki jerks his head up, surprised to see the Russian, this time without his mask and seemingly also without his bomb. "You really like to arrive unannounced, don't you." The rasping voice of the villain carries easily in the room. This time more of the league are present, with Dabi and Spinner chatting about something off to one side while Mr. Compress has laid claim to the couch, lying down and sleeping on it. Twice and Toga seem to be enjoying a card game at one of the improvised tables, just a plywood panel on some crates.

"Well, I do specialize in stealth work, so it's sort of habit. Have you got what I requested?" He walks forward, ignoring the eyes watching him intently as he approaches Shigaraki, his coat swishing behind him.

"Actually our informants just left, you have good timing." Shigaraki gestures to a map on the table. It's a current map of UA, presumably newly updated for students due to the new buildings being present. It's annotated in pen. The hand that did it was fairly clean, Dmitri would guess it's a student's handwriting from how it's composed, professionals usually don't need to think over each word as they write. Each building is labeled in English. "I was presuming you meant the Hero School from the way you phrased things, so here is the list of each building in the campus, and here's a list of Hero course students and their buildings." Shigaraki delicately pulls a notebook from his jacket, his other hand resting on the map.

"Why, thank you." Dmitri reaches for both but stops when the villain moves his pinkie closer to the documents.

"Before I give these to you, I want a promise that you will help us to reclaim _sensei_." He emphasizes the last word, red eyes meeting Dmitri's brown.

"I assure you, we have every intention of getting him out of prison. If I am to be honest we were always planning on freeing him, we just wanted to start a dialogue with you folks." He takes the documents from Shigaraki, folding them and putting them into a coat pocket. "We want you all to become active again. With most heroes busy with fighting and keeping the country from falling apart, we believe that if villain activity were to pick up, it would create enough internal chaos that Japan pulls out of the war. At the very least, it might hurt their ability to go on the offensive. We've already written off Taiwan as lost, but we think the US and commonwealth won't launch an invasion of the mainland without Japan." the russian gives the information in a clinical tone, making sure to explain the proposal clearly. He'd hate for anything to be misunderstood. Shigaraki scrunched his nose a bit, somewhat annoyed that he'd been taken advantage of to a certain extent. Regardless, after a moment of thought, he returns the answer.

"We'll go active again, but only after sensei is returned to us." Shigaraki leans back a bit.

"I'll inform my superiors, Mr. Shigaraki...or should I say Shimura." and with that, the Russian seemed to cease to exist.

Tomura feels a shiver go down his spine. That parting statement shows that the Russian has a certain degree of privileged information. To be exact, information that very few people should be privileged to, and yet, here's this foreign agent, stating, with confidence, his birth name. He looks around, the other villains had been told that this guy would be coming, but all of them seemed surprised by his seeming nonchalance and professionalism. Well, everyone besides compress, who's still asleep.

"So, that was the Russian we're working with?" Dabi looks at the spot where he used to be. "What reason do we have to trust him?"

"Well, the enemy of my enemy is someone I want to give useful information to." Shigaraki sighs, his own personal anxiety apparent. It was obvious that this venture was entered into just so that their mysterious leader could be recovered from prison. Dabi's concern is a matter of principle.

"How are we going to dismantle hero society if we're going to work alongside heroes just because they're from another nation?" A few licks of blue flame emerge from his hands involuntarily, a sign of irritation.

"As I said before, we must start somewhere, and that somewhere is Japan. We're not making permanent allies of the Russian hero establishment, merely acting towards a common goal." Shigaraki shifts his tone to try sounding more diplomatic and well-equipped to handle the situation he'd initiated partially on impulse. "Regardless, if they wanted to kill us, they could easily do so. As soon as our dealings with them are done, we'll move our base so that we can return to the shadows."

Dmitri observes passively from one side of the room. His quirk preventing himself from being detected by any of the villains. As Shigaraki explains their ideas, Dmitri exits, deactivating his quirk as he lights a cigarette. He takes a drag as he puts the documents in his pocket. His hand returns from the pocket with his phone. He dials up Kirov's office, and after a moment the Brigadier answers the phone.

"Dmitri, what is it?"

"Data collected, will drop it at point P." Dmitri hangs up, putting the phone back in his pocket. He takes another drag on his cigarette, making his way towards the park bench that he'd mentioned he'd drop the documents at for Intelligence to pick up. He knows exactly why this map is needed, and it doesn't improve his mood one bit to possess that knowledge.


	7. Titans of Lethality

Miruko slowly blinks her eyes open, feeling a terrible headache. She takes a moment to recall what had happened before she'd gone unconscious. The Rabbit Hero been out patrolling the woods with Master Dealer when, as far as she recalls, she'd found herself slamming face first into a tree and being knocked unconscious after being hit by a shockingly strong gust of wind.. All that had preceded it was a strange humming sound, oddly enough. She looks around, realizing she's hanging upside down in what looks like a small campsite. She tries to address the sticky feeling of what might be blood on the side of her head, but she finds that her arms are tied as well, fastened to the ground and securing her in a totally stretched position. To a normal person this would seem like a strange way of securing somebody, but to Rumi Usagiyama, this is a very worrying sign. To target Miruko this way means that whoever had captured her has an intimate knowledge of her quirk to the extent that he knows it can't be used if you immobilize the legs. She hears a mechanical whine and turns her head to see the source.

She sees Master dealer, tied up so that her hands are immobilized. She doesn't seem to be in great shape. Her costume is shredded, and she seems pretty well beaten from the extensive bruising, lacerations and the way her limbs don't seem as rigid as they should be. Standing above her is a hulking figure in what looks to be a sort of powered armor. It's painted in a digital green camouflage, bearing several badges that are unreadable from this distance. What is comprehensible is the metallic sigh that comes from the speakers on the armor.

The armored figure raises one gauntleted hand to her face and wraps its fingers around it. After it says something which was too low to hear from Miruko's position, there's a low hum before Master Dealer's head explodes away from the hand with a wet cracking sound. The sounds of shards of skull and grey matter slamming into the trees beyond echo as the armored figure shakes several bits of face off its hand. Once that's accomplished, the figure turns and walks over to the vainly struggling hero. Each step announced by a mechanical whine followed by the soft thud of the armored boot. The front of the armor resembles a suit of knightly armor, with a belt bearing several curved magazines, a very large handgun, a knife, and several pouches. Attached to one leg is a short-barreled assault rifle, presumably the weapon to match the magazines on the belt. The Helm is the midway point between a military helmet, a gas mask, and an old fashioned knight's helm.

The worrying part of the helm would be the lifeless lenses in the eyes, in spite of no expression being visible, one could sense the smile behind that mask. The figure kneels down, bringing its face to be level with Miruko's face. After a moment, it speaks, and it becomes apparent that it's a man in the armor from the voice.

"It's great to see you're awake. I was beginning to think I'd made a terrible mistake and you weren't going to wake up. I only meant to stun you with that blast, but I miscalculated the angles a little and you made a nasty contact with that tree. Wouldn't that be a shame if you weren't awake for this?" One could hear his smile from the way he talks, although there's a strange apologetic note to his words. His accent is definitely Russian, but he still pronounces his english perfectly. "You do understand English, don't you?" He cocks his helmeted head, he'd be disappointed if she can't understand what he's saying.

"W-who the fuck are you?" The hero tries struggling some more, if she could bend her legs at all then she could have a fighting shot at escape. It's no good, the tension remains constant. The man chuckles a bit, his response coming after he finishes his amusement.

"My name depends on who you ask. Some call me the Cataclysm. Others call me Sergei. Personally my preferred name would be my official Hero name, Tunguska." Sergei smiles behind his helmet, observing the hero with a keen eye.

"What kind of fucking hero ties up and kills people? from where I am you seem like a faggot-ass villain." While she may do many things, showing weakness to an enemy is not one of the things Miruko knows how to do. Following her derision of the Russian, she spits on his faceplate. After a moment, he sighs, straightening up as he instinctively tries to wipe off his faceplate. Once he finishes that, he looks down at Miruko.

"That's no way to treat a friend." He returns to his previous position, face level with hers. He runs his gauntleted fingers over her long ears, causing them to involuntarily flick to and fro. From the feel of it, a large section of his Palm and the bottoms of his fingers are exposed on the of the gauntlet. "I went through the trouble to immobilize you without crippling you, isn't that something friends do? I'd like to think we're friends, from how nice and unobtrusive you were while I was playing with Master Dealer. Although she left such a mess." he tut-tuts as he gestures to the pink and crimson splattered across the trees, not to mention the still-twitching corpse.

"I'm not your fucking friend, cocksucker, and don't you think you're gonna make me change my mind." Miruko growls her words at the ignoble hero, her crimson eyes fixed on the soulless lenses of his mask. He laughs, a distorted, metallic sound due to the voice system on his armor.

"Sorry, I guess it's unrequited then. Is it the mask? I understand some people may be a little put off by it." He grabs his helmet, and after pressing a button on it, lifts it off, and Miruko would honestly have preferred that he kept it on.

His face, while seemingly within reason as far as features go, is simply off-putting. From his dark, deep-set eyes, glinting with malevolent intelligence to his high cheekbones and sunken jowls, he presents a very skull-like look. His hair is cut short, and is a fairly standard brown color. If one saw him on the street, it'd be reasonable to assume he'd just escaped from some sort of prisoner of war camp. His lower face is split with a wide smile, showing off a mouth of immaculately cared-for teeth, and his eyes are wide, the whites of his eyes exposed both above and below his Irises. Overall he has the air of a vicious maniac. Unfortunately for the currently-bound Miruko, looks aren't deceiving here.

The Rabbit hero can't help but flinch away from that slasher smile and bitterly cold eyes. He notices this, judging from the smile creeping a millimeter higher on his face.

"Am I ugly? Is that your problem? It seems a lot of people don't like my face that much. Although, you'll learn to love it, I hope." He chuckles, the sound strangely dry and hollow even without the modulation of his mask. Miruko summons up the courage in her to return to her defiant scowl, and she spits in his face again, prompting him to flinch back and lose his balance, falling on his ass. He lets out a somewhat pained groan.

Miruko laughs, finding amusement in the displeasure of her tormentor. Of course, the laughter catches in her throat as he begins to laugh himself, a slow, ragged sound. He sits back up, a hard edge behind his words as he looks at her, his expression somehow even more worrying.

"You're a feisty one, aren't you?" his hand moves down to the knife on his belt, drawing it with a slow, rasping movement. "I'm afraid that attitude is not really that beneficial to you. Luckily enough for you, my orders didn't say 'kill' they merely said 'remove from service'. I have no interest in killing you, that's no fun, there's no remaining joy to be taken after that light fades from the eyes. However…" he reaches his knife up to the back of her leg, running the blade lightly over her from the ankle to the knee. "There's a certain joy to knowing one's work is still affecting somebody in some way." His wide smile fails to relent, even as she squirms beneath his touch.

The young Hero has never quite felt such terror in her life. In almost every fight she's been in, she has had nearly every advantage. Here, the opposite is true, She is at every possible disadvantage, She can't use her quirk to its fullest, or even at all, really. She's unarmed against an extremely powerful opponent. Why'd this particular crazy fucker need to be given both an extremely powerful quirk and what seems to be a high position and the intelligence to plan attacks that can stop top-tier heroes. The statement that shakes her is the mention of 'orders'. That means somebody is targeting her specifically. She then curses her own idiocy. Of course somebody would want to target her, she's a high-ranking hero who's been disrupting operations all over the Korean front. That would be reason enough for specialists to be brought in against her. Then she has a thought that requires her to at least ask.

"What the fuck did Master Dealer have to do with this? What did she do to deserve to die?" Miruko struggles against her bonds again, wincing a bit as the rope digs against her ankles and wrists.

"She was another bird I got with this stone, one more asset removed from the front. She was remarkably fun to enjoy some time with as an appetizer, my quirk takes some time to get warmed up, y'know. The blast I used to knock you two out was actually pretty hard to do from a cold start. Now I can work with all my nice precision after i started working with her." He flexes his hand, a chorus of joints cracking comes from it. "Now, I guess I should get to business, shouldn't I?"

"What do you mean by that?" Her crimson eyes rapidly flick between his hand and face as he rests his hand on her calf.

"As I said, I have work to do to ensure that you will never be able to fight on the front again." His tone has gone a little more serious. It seems that while he enjoys his work, he seriously cares about it.

"W-what are you going to do?" For the first time, her defiant tone fails, and her fear leaks into her voice, which cracks heavily.

"Oh, wouldn't you love to know." He turns to her leg as he activates his quirk with a deep thrum, like the sound of white noise at the bottom of a speaker's range. He hums some 70s pop song about being stuck between clowns and fools as he gets to work. The distinctly unpleasant chorus of noise from his macabre task carries hundreds of meters, but nobody can really help, since the Allies' heroes are concentrated hundreds of miles away and the pair are well beyond the 38th parallel.

Many hundreds of miles away, on the Southern tip of Taiwan, Castle Bravo is also engaged in his own dark task. He jumps from the helicopter onto rubble-dusted ground, his boots kicking up small plumes of powder from the ground. He checks his watch, confirming the time. He's got a target and a timeframe. So far, he's running on time, but he doesn't want to risk it, so he takes off at a jog. He keeps his breath even, shaking his hands a bit to ensure that they're warmed up to work his gauntlets. The helicopter slowly rises and leaves, passing between buildings to not be plucked by anti-air fire.

Due to the heavy dust in the air, much of which his quirk irradiates, Castle Bravo's taken to wearing a bandana over his mouth in the field. The American flag patterned fabric is tucked into the collar of his jumpsuit. The whole ensemble gives him the appearance of some sort of post-apocalyptic vigilante. As he traverses the dull, rubble-dusted streets, he notices the odd lack of activity. Normally, even in a war zone one would see at least some motion from the insides of houses, especially in quiet moments like this, somewhat beyond the main lines of fighting. Then he hears a fusillade of gunfire, obviously the report of a couple dozen automatic rifles. He takes off towards the sound at a jog, it's highly unusual to hear that much gunfire behind enemy lines, especially in residential areas.

He turns a corner and finds himself outside of a public park. Around the middle of the park, there's what looks to be a group of people standing in a line next to a ditch, facing a group of Chinese conscripts, their plain uniforms differentiating them from the professional soldiers who would be weighed down with more equipment. An officer stands off to the side. He shouts an order and the conscripts raise their rifles, making it painfully apparent to Castle Bravo what the gunshots were from.

A moment later, and before Tex could really do anything, another shouted order is given and the conscripts open fire, and the people fall into the ditch, dead. At this point, the officer yells another order and the conscripts pick up shovels and start to fill in the ditch. It would seem that even at this point of desperation, the People's Liberation Army is still engaging in 'pacification' operations against people who were found to be hostile to the Chinese government in one way or another. After holding back his bile, Castle Bravo makes the sign of the cross before he strides confidently into the park. He makes it within fifty meters of the group before he's spotted by the conscripts. One of them yells out and the officer turns and yells out at Castle Bravo. Presumably an order to stop.

Tex stops, placing his hands in his pockets as the officer walks over, resting one hand on his sidearm. Once the distance between them had closed to around ten meters, the man cocks his head before he croaks out a question, working hard through every syllable of the english sentence.

"Are you an American?" His voice is stern and serious.

"Yes." Castle Bravo can't help but smile at the question, since he's wearing an American Flag bandana and an American uniform.

"What are you doing here?" The officer narrows his eyes, skeptical that an American was just wandering behind the front lines.

"Well, I was initially here to eliminate a SAM battery, but it seems I've got some trash to take out." With that, he raises his left hand and activates his quirk, letting loose a beam of relativistic Neutrons right into the Officer's face. While the beam itself is totally invisible, it's accompanied by a blindingly bright blue flash as the air it passes through is violently ionized and torn apart at the molecular level. Before the Officer's eyes can convey the stimulus of the bright flash, the beam smashes into his head. In less than a millisecond, a two-inch wide hole is bored straight through his brain and he is dead. Shortly thereafter, and well below the period of Human reaction time the sheer energy imparted causes his brain and skull to explode and vaporize as they heat up. One of the Conscripts who had been behind the officer is nailed as well, His Chest and its contents exploding out of his back from the extremely concentrated impact of the quirk. The beam buries itself in the ground behind the conscript, a function of the officer having been significantly shorter than Castle Bravo.

The beam lasts less than a second. If there were a geiger counter anywhere within five hundred meters, it would probably have been set off by the Thermonuclear Hero's blast. The smell of Ozone and burnt flesh fills the air as the two collapse. The rest of the dozen conscripts try to raise their rifles, but most are either blinded by the flash or just in shock, thus their reaction time is not as quick as Castle Bravo, whose goggle lenses have gone dark to protect his eyes. He raises his Right hand and lets loose a wider beam from that gauntlet, hitting two soldiers. In an instant the radioactive bombardment tears through them, not tearing holes in them like the other two, insead leaving them flash-burned and their uniforms ignited. Needless to say, they drop screaming both from the pain of receiving around 70 Gray in radiation and finding themselves on fire.

Castle Bravo turns to the rest of the conscripts, most of whom are barely holding onto their rifles at this point out of fear. They're also shaking pretty violently at this point. The hero thinks back to the basic lessons on Chinese he'd been given before he'd left for the field.

" _Put down your weapons and proceed in that direction until you find American or Japanese soldiers."_ He points to where he believes the current battle line is. A couple of the survivors slowly put down their rifles, but one particularly brave man shouts some patriotic slogan as he overcomes his fear and raises his rifle and fires on the hero. His wild shots didn't hit, but the incandescent lance from Castle Bravo's hand hits him right in the neck, causing a rather dramatic structural failure of it. As the man and his head fall to the ground, the remaining men are cowed into dropping their guns and running in the direction specified. A couple yelling something that, from what Castle Bravo could tell, means 'thank you for letting me live'. He nods, watching as they leave the park towards the front lines before turning to the ditch.

When he walks to the edge, he's tempted to gag as he finds that the couple dozen he'd seen given summary executions were nowhere near the only people. It seems that, by his count, there are around a hundred bodies in the ditch. With a grim expression, he pulls his map from his thigh pocket, using his landing point and a couple landmarks to figure out where he is. Once he figures out the grid square, he pulls his radio off his belt.

"Castle Bravo to Command, do you read me?" He adopts the standard clipped tone one's expected to use on the radio.

"Roger, Castle Bravo, what's the sitrep?" the man on the other side of the radio sounds like he's in a far more comfortable position than the Hero.

"I found and engaged small enemy force at-" He checks his map again "Labor park, map sector E-12, nine men are en route to front line with intent to surrender. In addition, I have come across a mass grave of civilians. I estimate a hundred in total. Should I remain with the grave and wait to be relieved, or should I proceed with my mission?"

The man on the radio sounds like he steps away for a moment, presumably to speak with the general in command, before he returns.

"Castle Bravo, proceed with your mission, Endeavor's force was already en route to the area, so they will coordinate the procedure to mark the site. Best of luck, sir." Tex nods in agreement before he nods.

"Roger, proceeding to primary target, will call back upon completion of objective." With that, he takes off towards the target, moving at a jog to make up for the lost time.


	8. Orpheus's Reprise

The time is Eleven-Thirty PM, Tokyo time. Two men sit in their seats, eyes flicking over the monitors of dozens of camera feeds. They'd settled in for the night shift around half an hour prior. As far as appearance goes, they're both burdened with mutation quirks, one bearing a strong resemblance to a Scarlet Macaw, while the other has a total of eight eyes, with them arranged in clusters around where the normal ones would be. The spider-eyed man takes a sip from a mug labelled "Number 1 dad", leaning back in his seat. The two men's uniform caps are on the desk in front of them and their distinctive uniform overcoats are draped over the back of their chairs. The multi eyed guard looks over at his birdheaded compatriot, a few eyes still watching the monitors.

"So, did you hear what happened to Miruko?" He puts the mug down, turning more eyes when he sees something move on a monitor, but turns back to the birdman when he realizes that it's just another guard on his patrol.

"You act as if one couldn't, it was all over the news." The bird-headed guard shakes his head. A top-tier hero being unceremoniously dropped out of the back of an anonymous van in front of a Seoul hospital, beaten and bloody, with multiple vertebrae literally exploded and a missing leg from the knee down is always a big controversy.

"Yeah, hey, don't you know her cousin or something like that? How're they taking it?" He takes another sip of his coffee.

"Oh, I haven't heard from him, how's Fukami taking it? Isn't Miruko her favorite?" The bird-headed guard cracks open a soda bottle he grabbed from his coat pocket.

"Oh, for sure, she found out about what happened from some friends at school and was crying when she got home. I had just gotten up to get ready for my shift and it took me a few minutes to figure out what was happening. I spent the next half hour or so trying to calm her down. It was a mess. Did I mention that she actually met Miruko at the public reception her agency threw for her right before she hopped over to Korea? She managed to get that plushie you got her for christmas last year signed. Man, I have never seen a kid hug a toy harder than Fukami did with that thing when I went and grabbed it for her after I realized she was upset about her favorite hero." The many-eyed guard sucks air through his teeth. This recent news is definitely not good for the mental state of his middle-school aged daughter. His wife had actually taken over the job of attending to their daughter when she had gotten home from work.

"Oh, sorry to hear that, man. Here's hoping she's feeling better tomorrow." The birdman raises his own mug to wish well.

"We're all hoping. On a lighter note, how did your date last night go?" The spider-eyed guard stretches a bit.

"Oh, it went alright, although she was sort of weird, she was really curious about my job and was really interested in the cut I got on my hand yesterday. Well, at least she was crazy in a couple good ways." The birdman snickers, turning back to the monitors. Then the intercom from the front gate crackles to life.

"This is front gate to Front sector security, we got a scheduled supply truck coming in, we need the gate opened." The bird-head guard looks to his monitors, confirming that the truck is correct as the camera system runs the facial recognition on the driver. As soon as it checks out with the little "Person is authorized to enter" Message, the birdman flicks the switch that opens the gate, and the truck rumbles into the facility.

It may be prudent to mention where these two friends work. These two men, the many-eyed Tamura Torazo and the birdlike Sama Kenji, are guards for the evening shift at Tartarus Prison. Specifically, they are the camera and control operators for the Front Gate and Mid-security cell blocks. Of course, by most prison standards the mid-security blocks are built to the same standards as Supermax blocks in most other prisons. The two guards don't have too much of a difficult time, since the system will automatically flag and notify them of anything deemed out of the ordinary. Then they can activate the automatic security systems or just send in other guards to deal with whatever it may be.

In the pocket of Kenji's overcoat, his phone silently works away at the problem given to it. The program placed onto it the previous evening by the guard's mysterious date while he slept, were it sentient, might give a smug smile as it finally cracks into the camera systems of the Prison, and then starts to loop the footage. The phone sends a text message to a restricted number, and immediately deletes its own data regarding the program and the message.

In the back of the truck, Crimson Spectre smiles as his phone buzzes with the message, it seems things are perfectly on time. With a thought he activates his quirk and hops out of the back of the truck. He casually strolls between two guards covering the door and frowns at the keycard swipe. He turns to the guards and notices one has his keycard hanging on a lanyard attached to his belt loop. He holds back a chuckle as he grabs the card and holds it up to the scanner. After a moment the door unlocks and the Russian slips in. the sound of the door closing eliciting confused looks from the pair at the door. At this juncture, it becomes imperative to know how Dmitri's quirk, Relative Nonexistence works. When he activates it, he becomes totally unnoticeable, along with most of his actions, to those directly observing him. He can, however, be seen through a camera, hence the need to loop the footage.

He casually walks up the stairs and arrives at the door to the control room and quietly opens it. He notes the pair of guards talking amicably and then his eyes settle on his prize. With a certain nonchalance, he strolls over to the control panel, making sure not to obstruct either man as he presses the button that puts the Security system of this section into drill mode. Now the automated system won't call additional police if the alarm sounds. With that accomplished, he traipses out of the building, out into the middle of the front courtyard, and fires an infrared flare from a flare gun he'd been given for the mission. The guards don't see where it came from, and only hear the echoes of the shot, looking around in confusion as Dmitri steps into a known camera blind spot, and de-quirks, leaning in the shadows to wait for the next phase.

Three Miles away, a pair of helicopters notice the flare and turn towards the prison, having taken off from a cargo ship several minutes prior when the text that cameras were looped came through. The Mi-24 helicopters move at speed, keeping low to the water to avoid being noticed by the prison. In the transport compartment of the lead chopper, six figures are making their final preparations. Chief among them being the Cataclysm Hero, Tunguska, fresh from his assignment in Korea and now attached to operation Orpheus's Reprise. His cold eyes flick across his fellow Heroes and quirk mercenaries.

The two most important figures are the two in more costume-like outfits rather than military-style fatigues. Directly across from Sergei is Agafia Sergeyevna, better known as "Magnetic Hero: Curie point" Her quirk allows her to generate precise magnetic fields from her body, of such potency that they can even prove lethal from the undue effects from the iron leaving one's blood or metal being blasted through their bodies. Of course, there is a downside, in this case, the more she uses her quirk, the more her brain patterns and mental state are degraded. She can recover, but her cockiness and bloodthirst approaches deadly levels when she overuses the quirk. Her costume consists of a fairly standard navy blue jumpsuit with many pockets full of possible weapons.

Sitting next to Her is Friedrich von Salzen, also known as Schwarze Friedrich, regarded as a class-a villain by the international community and officially he is not under employ of the Russian government.. However, when one has a large budget whose use doesn't need to be disclosed to the public, hiring the services of less than reputable persons is quite reasonable. His quirk is the result of a bit of a eugenics project, similar to that of the Todoroki family. His parents had thought he would be a great hero, but he had other ideas when he ditched his life in the Vienna suburbs to sell his services to the highest bidder. His quirk, "Nocturnal Abomination" is the fusion of his father's quirk "Blutsauger" and his mother's quirk "Dead puppeteer". "Blutsauger" permits him to gain immense gains to strength and speed for a limited time by consuming human blood. The younger the human source, the stronger the effect, and the duration is directly based upon the amount drunk. "Dead Puppeteer" Allows for the user to take control of dead human tissue and give it basic orders. These puppets can also be used in large numbers and are usually used as a delaying tactic.

The pair are busy with finishing the preparations for their equipment. Curie Point is ensuring her weapons are all in place, such as canisters of needles and small knives. Schwarze Friedrich is slotting a canister into a device on his waist attached via tubes to a mask on the lower half of his face. The canister is labeled "16 y/o, 683ml". Sergei, on the other hand, is totally prepared, a sick smile filling his face as the helicopter pitches towards the prison.

The pair of guards look to one another in confusion as the sounds of a pair of helicopters fills the air, only to be replaced with shock as the two aircraft crest the prison walls and perform a few maneuvers to slow down. One starts grabbing at his radio before he finds himself deceased as The Phantom Hero puts two shots in his head with his handgun, before offing the other guard as he was still reeling from the shock. Dmitri quickly makes the sign of the cross and apologizes for his actions as he looks up. The Russian hero holsters his pistol and puts his hands in his pockets as the helicopters touch down in the front courtyard, which had been built so that any escapee was easy to see as they run. The choppers digorge, one unleashing the group of quirk users and the other deploying eight Special Operations soldiers. Dmitri looks over at the truck he'd arrived on, which had parked at a loading bay and had since been emptied of the crates of food it had carried. He strides over and looks up at the driver, who seems to be boredly playing with the steering wheel.

"Alright, I'd recommend leaving, things are about to get spicy." Almost on cue the alarms in the front sector start going off as the watchtower guards hit their panic buttons. Of course, the police have no idea since the alarm system is in drill mode. "Been an honor working with you and your group, have a good night, see you at the rendezvous point." He slaps the door as the driver puts the truck into reverse, swinging around before gunning it, smashing through the wood traffic blocker on the exit lane as the main gate starts to close.

Sergei totally ignores the structure containing the front control room, instead moving towards the cell blocks. He stretches his hands, joints cracking as he fires off small blasts of his quirk at the ground. His actions stir up a cloud of the crusted salt on the decking as he warms up. A group of guards run out, forming an impromptu firing line with men with riot shields in front and guards with Shotguns and rifles behind. The Front Sector response team open up on Sergei, prioritizing the power-armored goliath. Their fire pings off his armor, only scraping the paint, apart from some of the shotguns loaded with slugs, which leave small dents. Sergei pauses for a moment, letting them shoot. He nods appreciatively.

"Not bad, now it is my turn." He lets out a little laugh as he raises his hands, and his armor automatically extends spikes from his boots into the ground. While he hadn't used combat-strength blasts in a little while, Sergei is confidant that he can still do that. He sucks in his breath as he feels the quirk start humming through his body, moving towards the point of the two palms held together and pointed towards the prison guards. The primer burst fires off, sounding like a gargantuan beast groaning before the main blast erupts from his hands, the decking where it strikes the ground instantly crumples, leaving a cone of destruction before hitting the guards. Those at the epicenter of the blast find themselves blown into dozens of pieces, their bodies and equipment forming shrapnel that embeds itself into the wall and the other guards running out from the main cell block. Those further away are blown off their feet, some even escaping injury from luck, but others are not so lucky, especially one man who gets launched into the nearby wall, neck snapping on impact, body slumping to the ground. Of the twenty men who'd formed the firing line, all but three are either shrapnel, dead, or injured beyond combat effectiveness. The other three run off, presumably to raise the alarm that this isn't a live-fire drill. They would have succeeded had it not been for the hail of hypersonic needles launched at them by Curie Point. In an instant, their fate is sealed by the hundreds of millimeter-thick needles screaming through their center of mass. The perforated guards collapse, panting and coughing blood as the needles return to their canister. The black-clad Austrian moves with unnatural speed to several of the less damaged bodies, touching them lightly. After a moment they rise slowly, moving jerkily into various side buildings, attracting the attention of the guards on the inside.

With the initial threat dealt with, the fourteen operatives approach the main structure of the prison. Sergei looks it over, nodding as he thinks. Once he'd evaluated the wall, a tall, black edifice showing the wear of sitting out at sea for years, he places his hands on the wall and sucks in his breath. After another ungodly thrum, a large section of the wall explodes inward, chunks managing to actually pierce additional walls from the force. One of the spec ops soldiers looks at his comrade.

"I'm glad he's on our side." His compatriot only nods along as they rush into the breach, this is enough to alert the rest of the prison that it wasn't just the front section having an impromptu drill, and alarms start going off all across. The delay was what was important, not the stealth of the thing.

Sergei flicks his eyes over the map of the prison on his heads up display, the primary objective is through three more walls. By his reckoning, Sergei could probably get through those and the door without too much trouble. The problem is that he has no intel on the physical health of the objective. He knows that he requires life support, and there's a solution to that stowed in Sergei's equipment, in the backpack he's wearing. Beyond that, his mobility is unknown. In addition, the secondaries are close to the primary, so it will be easy to get them out as well. Sergei starts his confidant movement, striding confidently forth. The operators follow him, Curie Point ripping the cell doors off their hinges with her quirk, both for entertainment and to provide for the tertiary objective of setting as much chaos loose in japan as possible.

Friedrich lags behind the pack somewhat, making sure to yell out to the now-freed prisoners that they should head for the front gate, which would be shut at this point had the motors for it not been destroyed by a few missiles courtesy of one of the helicopters. He honestly doesn't understand why he's needed. It seems like Tunguska, Curie Point, and the Operatives could handle the mission. Of course, he's not going to badmouth an easy job considering the size of the paycheck he's going to recieve. He just wonders how much of a hotshot this villain could possibly be that he justifies this extensive special operations effort.

Meanwhile, in the front Control room, the pair have locked their control room door and are in a state of panic.

"What the fuck is going on out there?! we don't have anything on Camera!" Torazo yells into the radio. Only static responds. It makes sense, since all the Front Sector guards are either dead or indisposed otherwise and the same program had cut the front sector communications to central control. His bird headed companion looks over, genuine terror on his face.

"Do you think it's the League of Villains?" Kenji puts down his phone, he'd just called the police to ensure they know what's happening, since they'd noticed their drill mode switch had been flipped.

"I don't know, and I am not going to leave my post to find out, we're staying here until support arrives." Torazo sucks air through his teeth. He's going to survive whatever it is that's happening no matter what, a girl can't lose her hero and father within a day of each other.

"Good call." Kenji keeps his hand on his belt, hovering above his handgun as he watches the door.

On the mainland, a small group of professional Heroes, namely Hawks, Kamui Woods, and Mt. Lady, along with a few less prominent figures are having a dinner to plan something to cheer up their mutual rabbit-like coworker when she's returned to Japan from the hospital. The winged hero jumps a little when his phone starts going off, but he checks it immediately. His eyes widen and he stands up from the table.

"We gotta go, Waiter, I've got an emergency, I'm leaving my agency's card on the table, if I don't come back have the boss call the number and the agency will deal with payment." With that Hawks was out, sprinting out of the door before taking to the sky. The rest of the heroes get up to follow, their pace much more casual until their own phones go off in a chorus of buzzing and music. As soon as they find that it's a tartarus breakout, they're on their way, sprinting to cars and other vehicles.

Back at the Prison, Sergei groans as his palms start stinging heavily. His hands rest against the last wall before the Maximum Security section. He turns his face to Curie Point.

"Curie, I want you to fry all electronics in this area." She nods, before closing her eyes and reaching out with her quirk and blasting the entire cell block with a strong enough magnetic pulse to take out anything more advanced than a lightbulb, including the power regulators leading into it, plunging the Section into blackness. With that, Sergei cracks open the wall, storming straight to the primary's door while Curie Point moved on the Secondaries.

All for One wheezes, shaking a bit with each breath. While he can breathe without his life support for a little while, the sudden failure of the system surprised him. His panic is suddenly cut when he realizes that his Infrared vision is no longer obscured by the usual storm of wireless signals in the prison. It's easy to infer that the brainwave-monitoring systems are down as well. This is proven when he intentionally uses Search and the system doesn't give the usual stern warning it gives before it would light the villain up with machine gun fire. He finds a group of figures he'd never encountered before in the cell block, most scattered just outside the building, one moving oddly close to Kurogiri's cell, while another is right outside of the cell. The Arch-villain begins strategizing even as the door to his cell has a large hole blasted through it. With the soundproofing suddenly torn through, the sounds of exchanges of gunfire are easy for him to hear.

Sergei looks down at the wreck of a man, blind and wheezing in front of him. This is the thing they'd gone through so much trouble for? This is the being with the secrets to the next generation of war according to command? What the fuck? Regardless of his doubts, Sergei takes off his backpack, opening it to reveal a helmet within. It's plain, geometric, and painted in a mid-grey. It's based on the helmet that the moles in the Japanese national police had taken extensive photos of after All for One had been defeated. The device had been engineered based off what seemed to be the specifications and materials standards had been, in addition to snatches of video footage of that climactic battle. Sergei pulls it out and carries it to the bound villain. Sergei tears the tubes and mask from All for One's face, acting quickly but being careful not to harm the villain. His hands skillfully flick the respirator helmets systems on before placing it on All for One's head and connecting the tube in the helmet to the tube on the villain's neck without fanfare. With that accomplished, he kneels down in front of the villain.

"Can you walk or do you need to be carried out?" Sergei gives the question in a curt tone, now that the primary is theirs, he needs his information quickly.

"Do not worry about me, Mister Beriev, I am perfectly capable of moving." His iconic grin fills his lower face as his upper body swells grotesquely in time with him taking a deep breath through the new breathing tube. He activates Hypertrophy and Spearlike Bones, shredding the straitjacket and bonds, leaving him seated normally in the now-ruined wheelchair. After a moment he rises from the seat, levitating a few feet off the ground. "I am presuming there is some form of getaway?" He turns his senses outward, feeling all the various people around him, including one he's actually happy to notice.

"Sir, it's time for us to go." Kurogiri turns the corner into the cell, the shredded remnants of his prison outfit showing that Curie point had probably made use of some sharp methods to free him.

"Well, you should go, I think I owe my saviors at least the trip out to see why they want little old me." All for One Starts floating his way out of the cell. Kurogiri looks at Sergei inquisitively, and Sergei's response is immediate.

"33.028321 North, 133.081099 West, We'll be there very soon." Sergei follows All for One. The mist man turns to his master, who gives an approving nod. Kurogiri nods and vanishes into a portal after a moment. The Russian then opens up the communication on his suit. "This is Banner 1, Primary objective secured and-" He looks down the hall at the open cells. "Both Secondaries are loose. Prepare to dust off as soon as team is embarked."

"Confirmed, helicopters moving to primary extraction site." Sergei starts moving before he notices All for One looking at one of the still-sealed cells. "Sir, are you coming?"

"Yes, but there's something I've been meaning to acquire in this cell." The villain points to the cell directly in front of himself. "Would you kindly open this one?"

"If it's so important." Sergei places one hand on the cool metal wall before activating his quirk again, disintegrating a large section of the door. Inside the door is a pitiful looking figure. A skinny man of average height, slumped over in his seat, his messy brown hair slicked with sweat, it seems he'd been struggling to escape. He turns his eyes upward to the pair in the hole in his door, golden eyes glinting with surprise as he raises his head up to clearly see the pair slowly approach.

"When I noticed you were brought in here, I had so many ideas, mister Chisaki." All for One approaches the armless Yakuza boss, using one finger to raise his chin to face the blank slate of the new armored helmet. "Most of them involving how fun your quirk would be to have. Now that it appears you have no real means to use your quirk, you wouldn't mind if I took it, would you?" It's obvious that All for One is smiling through this, his voice jovial as he moves the hand from Chisaki's chin to his forehead. Sergei watches intently, having heard rumors about this quirk that could steal other quirks.

"Wait, I-" Chisaki doesn't get far before All for One activates his quirk, causing Overhaul's eyes to roll up in his sockets as he falls unconscious. After a moment, All for One pulls his hand away, and looks it over.

"Now, let's try this out." All for One floats over to a nearby wall, and presses his hand to it, and an instant later it disintegrates violently. The arch-villain nods. "This will be a fine gift." He turns back to Sergei and nods.

With this in hand, Sergei, All for One, and the rest of the team start moving as a group back towards that front courtyard. Each individual keeping an eye on a slightly different angle as any guards who had survived the infiltration are mowed down during the exfiltration, whether it's by Tunguska's shockwaves or Curie Point's steel or beaten down by All for One. Despite their best efforts, they aren't even really capable of delaying the group. They'd been trained for one or two villains getting uppity or escaping, and thus being under the conditions of having been imprisoned long-term. They weren't equipped for a special forces team to tear through the prison and release almost everyone they came across. The Prison is in total chaos as the dozens of freed inmates take their frustrations out on the guards, many of whom lie crumpled against the walls and around the floor. Sergei quickly ushers All for One onto the helicopter when they get to the front courtyard, the other quirk-users following as the special forces hop onto the other helicopter, Dmitri having joined after the pack had returned to the courtyard. Some sludge creature tries to get onto the chopper, but finds himself suddenly and violently blown all over the courtyard as Sergei blasts him point-blank. In all of this they'd only taken on casualty, one of the operators got shot in the leg, requiring one of his comrades to help him limp back.

The moment the Group is fully aboard the helicopters, the engines spool up to full power and they're off, turning and flying out to sea, lights off to avoid detection. The time is Eleven Forty-Two PM, Tokyo time. At Eleven Forty-five, Hawks arrives at the prison and immediately throws himself into the fight to ensure as few villains escape as possible. At this point every hero in a hundred mile radius is storming towards the prison.

"So, how's it feel being free?" Sergei pulls off his helmet, running his fingers through his hair.

"it's certainly am improvement. Now. Why have you been so generous as to free me?" he leans forward. Steepling his fingers.

"The world saw those artificial humans your group has made use of. Certain figures believe that if you can manufacture them for their side, it may prove decisive in the war." Sergei leans back.

"So, there's a war on?" All for one hums as he thinks, surprised to hear that things have gone the way they have.

"Yeah, the North Koreans and Chinese are at war with...a lot of different countries. This is actually where you come in." Sergei reaches into a pouch on his armor, pulling out a pack of cigarettes. He pulls one out of the pack with his teeth and lights it with a lighter from the same pouch.

"So, I take it that certain powers are interested in my unique abilities?" All for one smirks beneath his helmet. He'd concocted his own escape scheme, but this is certainly far more interesting. In addition, it's causing a lot more chaos than he would have anticipated.

"Well, specifically, they want want access to your artificial humans. They seem like a useful resource." Sergei takes a deep drag, before breathing out slowly.

"Ah, it's great to see my work's appreciated." All for One can't help but smile, it's good to be acknowledged.

"Yeah, well, We'll get all the details to you later." He looks out the window as the cargo ship comes into view.

The helicopters land aboard the cargo ship. In reality the ship is a Russian Military vessel built from the hull of a cargo ship and disguised as a normal vessel registered in Nigeria. As soon as they touch down, All for One is ushered off the helicopter onto a small boat, alongside Dmitri and a pair of the Spetsnaz operators. The pair spend the trip in silence as the cut towards the coast.

Several miles away, Kurogiri and Toga are on the beach next to the highway, waiting. Toga had been told to drive the truck here after the chaos at the prison kicked off, and Kurogiri had been given the exact location right before he made his exit.

"So, did you see mister Stainy in there?" Toga idly kicks at the air, sitting on the fender of the truck. She has a fairly contented smile on her face, considering the array of interesting people who are out that she could become, especially if Stain had gotten out. She's wearing a slightly too loose uniform from the company contracted for Tartarus's food shipments.

"I passed his cell when I was being put in, and his cell was open when I was leaving, so I would guess that he's free now. A man of such speed should have had no problem leaving before heroes arrived. So presumably we'll see him again at some point when he elects to surface." Kurogiri keeps his eyes peeled, leaning against the side of the truck as he waits for his boss to arrive.

"Sooooo, how long are we going to wait for them?" Toga flicks her eyes over to observe Kurogiri.

"As long as it may take." He narrows his eyes as he sees the boat approaching. There are four men on it, including the distinctive helmeted form of All for One. The boat lands on the beach, the pair of masked special forces soldiers dragging it fully onto the beach before All for One and Dmitri hop out. Kurogiri walks forward to meet them. "It's great to have you back, sir."

"It's great to be back out in the open, now, Dmitri, I take it I will be hearing from you soon?" All for one turns and faces the Russian, cocking his head slightly.

"Of course, See you all later." Dmitri turns away, gesturing for the two soldiers to start turning the boat around and getting it back into the water. The two recently freed villains looks over the truck, All for One beckoning Toga over.

The Arch-villain cracks his knuckles before he activates several strength-enhancing quirks. He casually walks up to the vehicle as Kurogiri opens a portal to their hideout. After a moment of looking around, All for one punches the truck, launching it into the nearby motorway. At this point, the boat pulls away from shore, the trio speeding away into the night. All for One chuckles lightly, turning to the portal as several police vehicles that had been racing towards the prison turn off the road to see what had sent the truck flying

"It seems that my incarceration was only a temporary setback." He steps through the portal, giving a polite wave to the police stepping out of their vehicles. The other two villains step through behind him as the portal closes, leaving the cops on the beach with nothing but a trail of a boat and some footprints in the sand.

Aboard the boat, Dmitri pulls out his phone, dialling a contact labelled simply as "K". As expected, a polite voice answers in Russian. "Petrovich pest removal, how may I help you?"

"This is Crimson Spectre, the dead knock at midnight." Dmitri scratches his chin, he needs to shave to be quite honest.

"I understand, I'm transferring you to Brigadier Kirov right now." The line goes silent for a moment before a tired voice answers.

"Dmitri, what's your status?" Kirov sighs as he leans back in his seat, the Kremlin had already received Sergei's report of success, but it hadn't filtered over to Kirov and his operational group.

"Operation Orpheus's Reprise successful, all objectives complete, full report will be submitted tomorrow." He sighs, it's been a long time since he'd been in such an intense operation, even on the fringes like this time.

"Great, I'm glad we're getting results. Thank you for everything, Dmitri." Kirov smiles as he starts reaching over to grab a cigar from the humidor on his desk to celebrate.

"You're welcome, sir, goodnight." The Hero hangs up and puts the phone back. Dmitri looks back at the mainland, 'it's all for the interests of Russia' he thinks. 'It's not personal.' It's these little delusions that keep his conscience in check.


	9. A Day of Infamy

The time is Eleven-Thirty, Tokyo Time. A pair of students secretly make their way into a small copse of trees away from the dorms at U.A.

"Why have you dragged me out all the way here, Denki, don't you know that curfew has..." Tooru Hagakure looks at her watch. "Just begun?" she glances over at her electric classmate, and back at the dorm building, a hundred meters or so off.

"I got word from Handy, he said we should not be in the dorm building at curfew tonight, whatever he means by that." Denki keeps his hands in his pockets, eyes constantly flicking around to ensure that none of the robots that patrol the campus are around. "If we're caught, our cover story is that we're secretly dating, alright?"

"Can't you come up with a better cover story for any time we're acting suspicious? Also, I thought you actually have a girlfriend at this point?" Tooru taps her foot, sighing lightly. She does find him pleasant to be around, but his lady killer tendencies get a little on her nerves.

"I could, I could, but hey, might as well go with the best-case scenario. Regardless, It's better to be known as a cheater than get locked up in Tartarus. Not to mention that you didn't mention _your_ girlfriend." He gives a little laugh before he looks around. "So, why do you think he wants us out, think he's sending someone to meet up?"

"I don't know, but it had better be important, I'm getting cold...also, we're not _that_ serious right now. We're just fooling around a bit, you know?" The invisible girl crosses her arms, regretting choosing her pajamas to come out in.

"Hopefully we'll find out soon, also, take this." Denki takes off his scarf and tosses it to Hagakure, he's fairly warm anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

"Thanks." She wraps the scarf around her neck, content for a moment at least.

At the same time, a group of six students are seated around the common area. Ostensibly they're supposed to be in their rooms, but a mixture of study, the continuing news coverage of the final hours of the battle of Taiwan, and general tiredness have left the six students sitting out of their rooms.

"Hey Shouto, your dad's on the TV!" Mina turns to the half and half boy, who's currently busy with some math work, hunched over the paper next to Jiro. His eyes flick up to the screen.

One can see the soot and dirt-stained Endeavor speaking to several soldiers, signing a couple autographs. Then he notices the camera, and nods to it. It approaches, and the correspondent comes into frame. The woman, whose quirk has made her resemble a snake on a humanoid body pushes the microphone towards the flame hero.

"Endeavor, do you have anything to ssay to the people at home?" Her slight hiss is hidden under her American accent. Enji thinks for a moment before speaking.

"Well, it seems we have a mission accomplished, and you'll be happy to know that I'm returning to Japan tonight, and many mothers are gonna be having their boys coming back soon enough." He gives the camera a smile before he turns back to the soldiers, chatting amicably as he walks off.

Shouto remains quiet, rubbing his chin with the eraser of his pencil as he thinks. While it's undeniable that there are certain things he just can never forget regarding his father, he can't help but feel somewhat proud for the hero, if not the man. He watches the screen for a few more seconds as the reporter talks with the anchor before he turns back to the math assignment.

"Shouto, what did you get for this one?" Sero leans over his shoulder, squinting at the paper.

"Which one?" Shouto looks up at the tape-bearing student.

"This one." Sero leans over further, putting his paper down in front of Shouto, pointing at the problem, where a series of increasingly frustrated attempts to solve the equation are scattered around its region of the page.

"I think you got sine and cosine confused." Shouto hands the paper back after a quick inspection of the math.

"Are you sure?" Sero looks it over, squinting before he groans. "Shit." Sero returns to where he had been working as Iida, seated in one of the corners working on his laptop, looks down at the time, and balks slightly. He quickly packs up, tucking the laptop back into it's case before he stands and addresses the rest of the class.

"It has come to my attention that it has gotten rather late, and we are beyond curfew. I'm going to my room and you all should as well." With that, Iida turns and exits the room, taking the stairs at a light jog.

"Well, I guess I should go as well." Yaoyorozu, who had been studying quietly in the corner with one eye on the television, stands up, putting her things away and walking off at a more leisurely pace than Iida.

"Right behind you buddy!" Jirou yells after Yaoyorozu as she notes the time and starts her packing process. The remaining three are a bit more stubborn, and plan to leave when Aizawa arrives and tells them to get to their rooms.

Meanwhile, a quartet of students are moving at a jog towards the dorm. Izuku Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugou, Ochaco Uraraka, and Eijiro Kirishima had been doing some exercises and had signed out one of the gyms on campus to work in. They'd lost track of time and had only recently realized that they were out after Curfew. Following behind them at a brisk pace are the two teachers who'd found them, Shota Aizawa and Hizashi Yamada. The pair had noticed the lights on and had decided to investigate and turn them off before they went to shepherd the lollygagging students to the dorms.

The two teachers keep up just enough of a good speed to watch the students while having their own conversation.

"So, think the soldiers they're keeping on the gates will actually help with security?" The yellow-haired hero looks up at the clear night sky, humming to himself.

"It's just a show for the press to show that the government cares about the future of our youth. UA's real defense has always been the capabilities of the teachers and older students." Aizawa sighs, hooking his thumbs into his jumpsuit pockets.

"Makes sense. Hey, Shota, do you believe those rumors that the Russians were the ones who took Miruko out?" Hizashi turns to his co-worker as he asks.

"It's certainly more believable than some of the theories I've heard from some of the students." Aizawa allows a small smile onto his face, the first in a while as he recalls the wild speculation that his students had been engaging in during their free time.

"Oh, you wouldn't believe the sort of stuff they keep on coming up with." Hizashi allows himself a chuckle as well, some levity in these times is always good.

"You don't say? On a more serious note, did you get the new notice from the government?" Aizawa makes sure his voice is low enough that the students cannot hear.

"Yeah, I can't believe that they think we should move towards a more militaristic format. There are some days I think they view heroes as powerful weapons instead of people." Hizashi groans, disdain filling his voice.

"Maybe it's been like that the whole time and we were too dumb to see it." Aizawa sighs, his normal dispassionate expression having returned.

"You're not one prone to being deep like that, what's wrong, Shota?" Mic cocks one eyebrow, genuinely worried.

"I've just been in a bad state, I'll probably be better off when I get some sleep." Aizawa rubs his eyes, before he returns to watching the four students.

"I'm certainly familiar with that sens…" Hizashi would finish his sentence, but at this moment, a swarm of missiles scream overhead. Specifically, the flames of their exhausts catch the eyes of the groups outside before the ear-rupturing chorus of sonic booms fill their ears. For an instant the eight people out of doors wonder what the missiles are targeting, but the incandescent blooms of explosions all across campus answer the question immediately. The four students on the way to their dorm stop in place, shielding their faces from the heat as several structures are struck by the hypersonic missiles, apart from Kirishima, who instinctively activates his quirk.

Tooru and Denki are blown off their feet as a cruise missile detonates dead center of Heights alliance, tearing a large section from the building and throwing up a cloud of dust and flame. The windows blow apart, shards flying away as missiles strike other buildings on campus. Specifically the main academic structures and the hero course dorms. The pair stay where they've landed. Eventually Denki looks up, mouth agape as most of the building crumbles in towards the impact point.

"H-holy fuck, JIRO!" with the passionate cry, Denki sprints from the foliage towards the building, his progress is abruptly cut short by a falling chunk of masonry colliding with his head. He crumples to the ground, unconscious.

The time is eleven thirty-five PM. Eraserhead and Present Mic are both speechless as they look around at the banquet of destruction that has bloomed around. After a moment of silence, they realize that the students they'd been watching have taken off at a sprint towards Heights Alliance. They join in the frenzied run. A chorus of sirens fill the night as the police and fire department start swarming towards the school.

By the time that the group arrives at the building, much of the rear and sides of the structure have fallen into the courtyard. From the blast pattern it seems the missile had struck the third floor on the rear wall facing the courtyard. Hagakure stumbles from the foliage, she's pretty sure she's unharmed at the moment, but due to her blood being invisible, she wouldn't know from just a quick look-over. Aizawa runs to Denki while Yamada meets Hagakure

"Are you hurt? Anyone else out here apart from you two?" Present Mic places his hands on his student's shoulders, stooping down to meet her eye to eye. Any sort of information would suffice.

"I-I don't think I'm hurt, and apart from Denki, no, there was nobody out here." Hagakure feels a tear roll down her cheek from a mixture of shock and guilt at her revelation that this must be what they wanted the UA maps for.

The quartet of students who'd been out training have already begun picking through the smoldering ruins to try to find survivors.

Within the rubble, Tokoyami finally comes to. He'd been knocked to the floor by the initial blast and had been trapped when the structure collapsed around him. He knows that he definitely has a few broken bones. It seems like Dark Shadow had been stunned as well by the blast and collapse, because the spirit is also starting to awaken. The black, smokelike entity slowly grows, strengthened by the deep darkness of the rubble. Sensing his master is hurt, Dark Shadow does the logical thing, envelop Tokoyami in himself and tear through the rubble to the surface.

The sudden emergence of Dark shadow, holding Tokoyami close to himself knocks Kirishima off his feet. Bakugou jumps into action, charging the spirit like that time in the woods. It takes a few bright explosive flashes to contain the rampaging quirk-spirit and prevent it from worsening the situation. While Bakugou starts ferrying the bird-boy to the lawn in front of the dorms, where survivors from other buildings have started to congregate for impromptu triage, Deku and Kirishima resume manually picking through the rubble after that sudden distraction.

Eraserhead and Mic's phones start buzzing as they receive alerts of an emergency at UA, alongside every hero in a twenty mile radius. The message is bare bones, considering the sudden nature of the attack: "Incident at UA high school, multiple explosions reported, unknown casualties, unknown cause." This is of course enough to encourage most heroes in the area to take off for the school. The first emergency responders speed through the gates. The soldiers stationed outside allow them through as several of them move across the campus to try finding the source of the explosions. The lead vehicles of the emergency responders are a pair of trucks bearing soldiers, followed by several fire trucks and ambulances, along with a horde of police cars.

Deku digs through the rubble, desperate. He's practically turned off mentally as he works to try to rescue any of his classmates before the rubble overcomes them. A part of his mind is relieved that he'd stayed out late with the other three. A few minutes difference on either end of his trip back, and he'd be trapped in a less-than-sound structure or outright dead. He tries to keep his thoughts off the realities and implications of the situation. With a few strokes of a pen, a few men hundreds of miles away had signed the death warrant on his classmates. All of th4ese thoughts are shoved back, replaced with considerations of which parts of the building he's digging through. He hopes that with each hunk of bricks or cement he shifts that he'll uncover somebody he knows, alive and just a little scuffed.

Despite the immense optimism required to think that _any_ person in that building had been unharmed, Deku would find himself vindicated as he breaks into a small pocket within the rubble, held up by hastily made supports and a stroke of good luck with how the ceiling fell.

Momo Yaoyorozu had been in the stairwell when the initial impact had occurred, The doorway to the common area had been caved in by rubble, and the way up was obviously untenable due to the missile impact. She'd acted quickly, knowing that the structure was moments from collapse. She had hunkered down under a landing, placing some improvised struts to try to shore things up. When the structure collapsed, she happened to be stuck in a space large enough for her not to be crushed beneath tons of rubble. A weak smile comes to her face when she sees the rubble shift, and then Deku's face appear in a gap. It takes a few more moments, but soon she's clamoring free of her spot.

When she gets clear of the small space she clutches her shirt and jacket around herself. In her rapid response she'd torn her shirt front open to use her quirk quickly. She looks around, at this point, the campus is swamped with hundreds of emergency personnel, soldiers, and heroes. Most of whom are clamoring across the rubble of the various structures. Her grey eyes move down and settle where the common room had been, and she gasps as she realizes that there must still be people there.

"M-midoriya?" She taps Izuku on the shoulder, since he'd already started moving off to continue his search. He jumps a bit as he seemingly comes out of a trance.

"Y-yes?" He turns to Momo inquisitively.

"There were four people in the Common Room when I left, they're probably still there or...what is left of them." Her voice grows small as she realizes the implications of that statement.

"Who?" Deku's eyes drift to where the common room had been.

"M-mina, Shouto, Kyoka, and Hanta." Her voice wavers slightly, the adrenaline from her initial response is wearing off, and Deku notices.  
"Alright, now, listen to me, Momo, go to the triage area, and if you're fit to help, just start helping and don't stop to think, just go." He keeps eye contact with Momo as he relays the instructions, partially to himself to be quite honest.

"A-alright." Momo starts making her way off of the pile of rubble. Her pace is steady if slow. Deku watches for a moment before he gestures to Uraraka and Kirishima, who are working through some rubble that had been the third floor.

"According to momo, there are four in the common room." Deku yells over at them as he takes off, starting to pull material off as soon as he arrived at the ruins of the common room. The pair and a group of firefighters all join him in starting to shift rubble in the desperate effort. Every second counts in situations like this, until that hopeful cry of 'I've got one!' comes up from Uraraka.

Ochaco isn't quite sure who she's found, since she's just come across a hand, she uses her quirk to float off a few more chunks of material. It quickly becomes apparent that it's Todoroki, from the shock of white hair she uncovers. Several paramedics and firemen congregate to start pulling chunks of rubble off of him. Eventually they get him extricated, and it's not looking great, from the large wound on the side of his head and obviously broken legs. She represses the urge to gag at the sight of the wounds and turns away, one hand clasped over her mouth.

Meanwhile, the paramedics start working over him, preparing him for transport with a neck brace and an inspection to ensure that he has no major bleeding occurring apart from the head wound. When Uraraka recovers, she uses her quirk on Todoroki, allowing the paramedics to move him away at a brisk jog. She only releases him once he's settled atop a gurney, his weight pressing lightly into the padding.

When Uraraka turns she's almost bowled over by several paramedics rushing with one of her classmates on a stretcher. The combination of dust, the speed of the group, and Uraraka's own mental state mean that she doesn't actually identify who is being rushed by.

On the lawn, a number of students have congregated as they observe the rescue operation. Each time an ambulance gets two people into it, the vehicle races off into the night. Hagakure nervously paces. The military medic had already looked her over as best he could and determined that she's not in need of medical attention. She sees Tokoyami approaching, having gotten his rudimentary look-over and determination that he's fine right now.

"Tokoyami, have you seen Mina?" Her worry is palpable as she looks over at the rubble, gritting her teeth at the thought that this is partially her fault. Of course, it makes sense, if you just hit the hero course, then the strike can be justified the same way someone would justify hitting an arms factory in operation. The people within were complicit in the arming of the Japanese War Machine. One could even argue that the students are weapons, and therefore not civilians but war material. Of course, this argument would only work if one were already sympathetic to the Chinese War effort. Regardless of the philosophical complications, Hagakure is worried for the pink girl. The bird-boy thinks for a moment.

"I have not, I'm sorry." He looks back, what has just happened simply has not fully struck him yet. The two students watch the search and rescue operation, of all the ways this evening could have gone, this is probably about the worst.


	10. Reactions

Enji's seated on the bench seat of a military cargo aircraft when he gets the phone call. He sees the number is...Eraserhead's personal number? Why would Shota call him at this time of night? He answers the phone, bringing it to his head and cupping his ear with his other hand so he can hear over the sound of the aircraft.

"Shota, what's going on? why are you calling at this time of night?" Enji's more curious than anything else, despite his voice being raised to be heard. On the other end, he could tell that Aizawa is slightly taken aback by the combination of the question and the volume thereof.

"Nobody's told you yet?" Aizawa's voice is strained. He's trying to keep himself in check. After all, he has work to do, people to call.

"Informed me about what?" Enji leans forwards nervously in his seat.

"Enji, I-I don't really know how to break this, but UA was just hit...I think it was an airstrike or missiles...I wanted you to be the first to know since your son…he was in bad shape when they took him to the hospital. I'm sorry Enji, I'm sorry we failed." In a rare moment, Enji could hear Shota breaking down somewhat on the other side of the line. He hadn't really been listening since he said what he did regarding Shouto.

"Thank you for telling me, Shota." Enji's voice is quiet, a whisper given a slim shred of body to be heard. Externally, Enji is stoic as he hangs up, but then the smell of burning electronics fills the cargo bay as the phone begins melting in Enji's hand, fortunately he's alone in the cargo bay apart from a few armored vehicles being sent back for some work to be done on them. Small licks of flame flutter across his face as his quirk starts acting up. Anybody who knows him closely knows that the best way to judge his mood is by seeing how is quirk is acting. When he's hot enough to melt electronics, he is completely Irate.

He tries to hold himself back, a desperate last ditch effort to suppress the impotent rage he feels. What makes him abandon this effort to repress his anger is the realization that there were _people_ behind this attack, _flammable_ people. This rage isn't impotent. He can find and destroy everybody who dared to harm that boy, no, _his_ boy, and all those young heroes-to-be. To think, almost as soon as he starts striving to reconcile with his family, to work to improve their relationship, this happens. This, this is the moment something breaks. It had been building, with every soldier he killed, with every hero he fought, with his new friend revealing the medical time bomb in himself, with every mass grave he found, now this? This is the point at which his restraint has gone.

All of this is expressed in one motion as he stands and falls to his knees. He lets out what can only be described as a primal roar of both rage and frustration. He turns his eyes upward, every tear instantly evaporating as his face is wreathed in blue-streaked orange and red flame.

"I don't know what gods might be listening, but hear me please and aid me. From here on out, I will not stop until I see every last man responsible for this travesty against my family and my nation destroyed. I don't care what the cost might be, I don't care if a hundred, a thousand, a _million_ of those...those wretched beasts must be reduced to cinders. I will see to it that every last capability they have to harm the people I swore to protect is destroyed and they will never forget the cost of their misdeeds." Endeavor's voice trembles. After all this, it almost feels good to finally come to this point. All that pressure on his mind has released, and what remains is a blindingly bright nugget of hatred, fueled by vengeance and a growing sense of purpose. With this said, he returns to his seat, eyes looking out the window as the Japanese mainland comes into view. Soon enough, he'll have his chance. Then his phone starts ringing again, this time it's Hawks with even more bad news.

The Emperor of Japan closes his eyes and counts to three before opening them. Unfortunately, the nightmare is still ongoing it seems. He looks down at the speech in front of him and up at the teleprompter. He'd written it quickly so he could respond to the evening's events. To have two attacks like this in one night is simply inconceivable. When Japan had entered this war, they thought it wouldn't come to their lands, that the enemy would remain on the defensive, obviously they were mistaken. He'd just gotten off the phone with the American President, she had been less than helpful except in agreeing that these attacks did constitute an escalation in the conflict. His eyes drift to the man behind the camera, who's giving the countdown.

Three

Two

One

The light indicating that the broadcast is live winks into life. The Emperor takes a deep breath, looks right into the camera, and begins to speak.

"My loyal subjects, as you are probably aware, our nation was attacked in two cowardly assaults on the society we have spent so long to build tonight. The hero school, UA, was hit by a missile strike that destroyed multiple facilities serving the Hero Course. The death toll is uncertain, and it is not my place to give the names to the public prior to their families being informed. What I can say is that this craven attack against _children_ will not be tolerated. Earlier today, my counterparts in Washington and London, along with myself, had sued for peace, as our goal of liberating the island of Taiwan had been achieved. In light of this attack, the three of us had an emergency meeting over phone, wherein we unanimously revoke this olive branch. The second attack was a mass breakout from the Tartarus Prison, believed to have been spearheaded by hostile special forces. While the efforts to contain the prisoners are underway, and being spearheaded by the number two hero, Hawks, many villains are still at large. These villains are imminent threats to the security of the Empire. As your Emperor, it is my duty to ensure the safety of my subjects in all situations, even those in such dire days. In light of the situation, I hereby decree that all current holders of a hero license, full or provisional, are granted full judicial powers to arrest, sentence, and carry out said sentence against villains that are encountered, and all persons found to be engaging in acts legally delineated as villainous are to be treated as enemy combatants from this point forwards." The emperor takes a sip of water before proceeding.

"In addition, due to the Flagrant disregard for the rules of war and targeting of an educational institution, Myself and my Colleagues in London and Washington have determined that we are no longer under any obligations to abide by the laws of war as well, and thus, those heroes whose quirks were judged as too...unsavory for frontline combat are hereby going to be deployed." He pauses for a moment before his tone drops.

"If one of the _beasts_ responsible for these acts is hearing me right now, I recommend you make peace with whatever god you may believe in, because if I have my way you will meet them very shortly. Today is not a day for us to be divided by fear, today is a day for us to be steeled by common righteous fury. You have sown the wind, mister Chairman." With that the light indicating he's live winks out. An aide scurries from the wings to his side.

"Tennō, you have a call from Hawks." He offers him a phone, the emperor picks it up and answers.

"What's the situation, Hawks?" His voice retains a fair amount of the hard edge of the latter part of the speech. But a little less harsh since he is speaking to somebody on his side.

"It's not looking good. I'd say about a quarter of the prisoners have prematurely ended their sentences. Worryingly, Stain, The villain All Might fought a few months back, and Kurogiri are unaccounted for, along with the members of the league of villains apprehended at the forest camp are all free. There are some sections of the prison which are inaccessible due some sort of power outage. We're working on getting in to see how things are." The hero sucks air in through his teeth as he observes a few minor villains being shepherded back into the prison by armed guards, police and a heroes. A few helicopters can be seen overhead, searching the area around the prison for escapees.

Of all the things that could really happen, this is about the worst. Just when society was recovering from All Might departing, admittedly partially through aggressive Jingoism and bringing up the old disdain for the existence of the Chinese, these two things had to happen. Hawks has to wonder if the strike on UA was partially a distraction. Or was it a coincidence? While it's unknown who launched the missiles, since North Korea has some of the new missiles that the Chinese sent them, it's certain the authorization came from Beijing. The prison, on the other hand is more dubious. The footage as it stands doesn't prove anything because none of the figures in it were wearing identifying marks, and the question of whether it was a Russian team due to quirks displayed is one that won't be broached simply because it'd be a poor decision to provoke them into possibly entering the war.

"Well, do you think any are going to be captured in the near future?" The emperor draws and lights a cigarette with his quirk, which creates electrical arcs between his fingers.

"I dunno to be honest, we got a couple when we arrived, but overall the majority of the escapees have made good pace. Now, your Majesty, I just wanted to give a quick status update. May I hang up, sir?" hawks shifts from one foot to the other, eager to get back to his task.

"yes, keep up your good work, Hawks." with that the Emperor terminates the call. He takes another drag from the cigarette. It's a bad habit, but it at least takes the edge off of the stress for him.

He exits the office, followed closely by his aides. He listens as they update him on various issues. He's still new to the game of running the country. After all, the ruling party in the National Diet had granted him powers somewhat without him anticipating it. He's just thankful that he has qualified advisors.

"So, I've got this right that basically every hero in the central Honshu region is currently busy with either the manhunts for Tartarus escapees and the rescue effort at UA?" The Emperor's voice is defined by an edge of tiredness and exasperation.

"Y-yes, Your Majesty." One of the aides checks his tablet again. "Although I don't think there's much more you can do, you need your rest, tomorrow is another day."

"Yes, although as of late, tomorrow seems less and less certain." He finishes his cigarette, groaning lightly.

"It's wonderful to be back with my loyal followers." All for One smiles behind the mask as he examines the group of villains arrayed before him. Apart from Toga and Kurogiri, the rest are in a state of astoundment. After all, the Russians are big fans of operational security, and didn't really let Toga tell anybody about the job she'd been called in on. Several moments pass in silence before Shigaraki approaches him, slowly. Carefully. He can't particularly believe his eyes. There he is, his mentor, his leader, his _sensei_ has finally returned. The arch-villain waits, observing Shigaraki closely. The hideout seems to be in the exact state that All for One had left it in, ramshackle. He could hear two news anchors talking about the Emperor's address on the television

"C-can it really be?" After a moment of hesitation, Shigaraki springs forward and hugs All for One, careful to tuck his thumbs to avoid tragedy. He had not been informed at all about the jailbreak. This is just another cause for celebration, since he already knew about the strike that was to be carried out at UA.

"It is, it is, I apologize for leaving you, Tomura, but this has been an unexpected boon to my plans." He places a reassuring hand on Shigaraki's shoulder. He's curious what has happened with the league since his departure, so he needs to be caught up. After a moment, Shigaraki breaks the hug, stepping back a bit.

"It's wonderful to have you back, _Sensei_. Now, with your permission, I was planning something, and I would still like to carry it out." Shigaraki had this particular idea after hearing about the Upcoming, now completed strike on UA.

"I don't want to ruin any schemes you might have, Tomura. I give you permission to take whatever action you might need to." All for One takes a seat on a half-ruined couch. It's a relief to 'see' clearly again. His blindness had been effectively total in prison since the immense number of wireless signals interfered with his infrared sight. "Of course, I assume that this plan will work out well for the league as a whole?"

"Yes, _Sensei_. I realized that my plan to try to turn a UA student's flaw wasn't the plan itself, but the choice of target. With the chaos surrounding the strikes on UA, I think that we might have an opportunity in the works. I simply request that Kurogiri come with me." Shigaraki paces a little as he speaks, eager to talk about his plan, but also conscious of the time.

"That's perfectly fine, right Kurogiri?" The recently-released villain turns to face his most misty of henchmen.

"Yes, sir, now, Shigaraki, where are we going to be carrying out this plan?" The misty man, still in his prison uniform, adjusts some of the slightly ragged jumpsuit.

"There's a certain side street we could work from. I'll fill you in once we get there. After all, while I am ecstatic about your return, We're working on a very limited time table." He pulls out the map he'd marked with the spot and points it out to Kurogiri. "Let's get going."

"Well, I hope you know what you're doing, Shigaraki, it would be a shame for me to be back in prison so soon." It seems that Kurogiri has gotten somewhat cynical during his time in prison. Regardless, he opens the portal the alleyway, which is fortunately empty right now.

"Don't worry Kurogiri, this plan is just about foolproof, which is a boon considering who's coming. DABI! SPINNER! Let's go." Shigaraki steps through the portal, followed by the scaled villain and the crispy villain. After that, Kurogiri leaves through the portal, leaving the remaining villains alone with their mysterious master.

"So, do you all have any questions?" All for One smiles behind his helmet, eager to get back to work on his various projects now that there's wartime chaos to help him along.


	11. Mild Crescendo

Takeshi Hikano taps his foot, waiting for somebody to be loaded into the back of his ambulance. His fingers drum lightly on the steering wheel, his eyes on the gate to the Hero school. He doesn't want to think about the catastrophe that's ongoing behind the vehicle. He'd always wanted to come here, but being quirkless isn't particularly helpful in pursuing a hero career. Thus, he did the next best thing and get into the emergency medical field. Of course, an innate knack for driving's led him to this place. To be clear, this is most definitely not how he had wanted to visit the most prestigious of Hero schools.

His personal thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the rear doors flying open and the sounds of two crews bickering. He turns and pokes his head into the rear compartment to see two sets of EMTs arguing over which patient should get in his ambulance next. He clears his throat before yelling out.

"If one doesn't need the stretcher, I can take both, just have the other on the bench." He gestures as he speaks. Shortly thereafter, the stretcher, bearing a grey-haired boy with immense eyelashes whose arm seems to be hanging limp and an EMT imploring him not to move is loaded into the vehicle. The other is blonde-haired lad with a tail that probably shouldn't be bent that way and what looks like a nasty, but bandaged laceration on his midsection. He is helped onto the bench seat by one EMT while another makes sure the grey-haired lad is secure. After a few moments of shuffling to get them in place, the technicians look up front.

"We're good to go." The one attending to the tailed kid shouts up front, and gives a thumbs up. With that, Takeshi hits the switch to activate his sirens and lights before pulling away. The trip probably won't be that hard, after all the military and police have closed the roads around UA so the emergency response can be thorough. A pair of fire trucks from a nearby department are pulling in as the man pulls out. The ambulance takes off onto the main road rapidly, sirens wailing.

While the pair are in somewhat rough shape, they don't seem critical. Hikano had been at home when he'd been called in, so him and his ambulance crew had missed the initial group of injured individuals. Regardless, Hikano is making a good pace, eyes flicking around the road to ensure he doesn't miss anything important. When he sees what appears to be an individual walking into the road, dressed in dark clothes and not paying attention, he quickly swerves out of the way, only the road that had been clear moments later suddenly has a car in it.

Takeshi hits the brakes, but not in time to avoid an impact. Fortunately, the patients were secured in place, the the pair of EMTs are knocked to the floor by the impact. Takeshi, while he's not injured, is somewhat stunned by the airbag's deployment in his face. His first response is to look into the back of the vehicle, face wrought with concern.

"Is everybody alright back there?" He receives a few grumbles in response before one of the medics picks himself up.

"Yeah, what the hell happened?" The medic checks the patients as his compatriot is still picking himself up.

"Somebody walked into the road and I swerved into a ca-" The words catch in his throat as the back door of the ambulance suddenly dissolves and a pair of dark-clad figures hop into the ambulance. The two patients look down and start to react, but are cut off by being shot with some sort of dart gun held by one of the figures.

"Who the hell do you thi-" the burlier of the two emts approaches the dark figures and is cut off in a strange gurgling sound as the figure grabs him by the neck, which seems to simply cease to exist. The ruins of the man collapse to the floor as the rest of the him falls apart, as if some great cosmic being had deleted him with a snap of their fingers. The other man puts his hands up, obviously surrendering. The pair look at him before he finds a dart in his chest and he falls paralyzed to the ground.

"W-what's going on here?" Takeshi's eyes are wide in shock from what had just transpired in front of him. One of the figures laughs, an odd, dry sound as he pulls off the hood of his jacket, being careful to use only four fingers as he stares at the ambulance driver. His beady, crimson eyes are filled with a certain smug mirth, and his ruins of lips are bent upwards in a smile.

"Simply a little fetch quest, driver. Unfortunately for you, you're not one of the object's we're fetching. I believe my friend, Kurogiri can sort you out." Shigaraki's words are soft and deliberate as he starts moving the stretcher, and his accomplice whose hands seem heavily burnt hefts up the unconscious Ojiro onto a shoulder and drags the unconscious medic by the collar.

"Wait, w-who's kurogi-" his words are arrested by a portal opening on his head, and suddenly he has the bizarre view of himself from the seat next to him. That would be his last sight as the portal closes, leaving the neatly severed head on the passenger seat, slowly leaking into the upholstery. The misty villain steps from another portal into the ambulance's rear area.

"I'm glad to see my technique hasn't faltered since my incarceration." The misty villain opens a portal in front of the group, replacing the opening of the rear doors with a portal back to base. Without much hubbub, Dabi, Shigaraki, and Kurogiri make their exit, leaving two corpses and three disappearances in the ambulance before the portal closes. Had one not seen it, they would likely have no idea what had just happened.

Funnily enough, this thievery would not actually be noticed initially. Given the chaos unfolding that evening, emergency services are stretched thin as it is. A singular unaccounted-for ambulance would get lost in the margins as the escaped villains lay waste to the countryside and the UA emergency response continues in earnest.

Meanwhile, A small sea away, a phone call is taking place.

"Are you totally sure, Madame President? I know it's not my place to say this, but wouldn't this go beyond the mandate that was given to us by Congress?" Tex's eyebrows furrow as he observes the plain wall of the office he'd been given on a temporary basis in Taipei. He knows that it would be a show of weakness and disrespect to entertain peace talks after this blatant escalation of the conflict which the People's Republic had enacted, but it still seems rash.

"I just spoke to the Joint Chiefs and both the Senate and House Armed Services committees, they all agree that the only reasonable approach at this point is regime change. The Prime Ministers of The United Kingdom and Japan have pledged their support for the removal of the current regime in China in private. I'm simply calling you to inform you of your orders and of the plan as a courtesy to an old co-worker." President Hannah Armitage's voice is measured and clear in its intonation as she leans back in her chair, looking out over the Rose Garden. Her fingernails tap on the Resolute Desk as she awaits a response from the Number One Hero of her country.

"I see. So, am I free to share this information with the heroes under my command?" He holds the phone between his head and shoulder as he pulls and lights a cigarette, taking a deep drag as he awaits the answer from her.

"...I don't see any problem with that, Tex, but do have discretion and make sure they're aware that this is not to be known to the public until we have boots on the ground." She lets out a sigh, turning her face upward and closing her eyes. The recent work has left her somewhat drained, and the bags under her eyes and slight fraying of the tight bun of silvering blonde hair only further proof of her fatigue

"Of course, Ma'am, will that be all?" He takes another drag, slowly exhaling the plume of smoke. He's stood up, prepared to exit the room and tell his fellow heroes about this development.

"For now, Tex, these are rather wild times, so stay safe." Genuine worry tinges her voice, he's one of the few people she can call a friend in this world.

"Oh, Hannah, Hannah, Hannah, when have I ever been good at staying safe?" He gives a laugh as he hangs up, hearing Hannah's exasperated sigh over the phone at the last instant.

Hannah contemplates the handset of her phone, as a small smile plays across her face. "Oh, Tex, you fucking dumbass." She puts the phone down as she looks over some paperwork.

Meanwhile, Tex exits the office, stubbing out his cigarette on a nearby ashtray. He sees Thunderhead chatting with a trio taiwanese officers, signing a few pieces of memorabilia. The Thermonuclear hero approaches, and while the trio are astounded to see him, he waves them off. Knowing the nature of the sorts of information that these heroes share alone, the trio scurry off to avoid breaches of operational security.

"Alright, Tom, I just got marching orders from Hannah." He keeps his voice low, knowing somebody might try listening in.

"No kidding, how's the Ballistic Vixen handling the oval office? Oh, and what are the orders." The dark-skinned hero keeps up his jovial attitude, after all, from his perspective the war hasn't been too bad, since he was involved in surgical special operations missions rather than the all-out combat that Tex has seen.

"Well, she seems to be doing alright, and we're actually going in." He makes sure that the meaning of his words has the time to settle in with his fellow hero.

"You don't mean-?" Thunderhead sucks the air through his teeth, hoping Tex is not about to confirm his worst fears.

"Yup, we're invading, further orders are coming in soon. Madame president would rather that this be played close to the sleeve. We wouldn't want mister chairman to become aware of what we're doing, would we?" Tex's voice remains a terse whisper, eyes flicking around to ensure the relative privacy of the two.

"I-I thought we were just kickin' them off Taiwan and holding the thirty-eighth." He nervously taps his fingers against the glass of water he's holding.

"We _were_ but things change. The new directive is regime change in light of recent events. Now, the real question is where we're going in. Now, I wanted to let you know because I trust you, so please don't go telling _anyone_." Tex taps his friend on the shoulder. "I hope you understand, Roger. On a lighter note, how's the wife?" Tex pivots the conversation as he notices a pair of officials approaching, leaning against the wall to seem more casual.

"Oh, uh, she's doing aight." Roger takes a moment to realize why Tex is asking until he hears the sounds of shoes on the floor. "Oh, she said last time she called that she was sending over a batch of her mustard barbecue sauce, you want any when it shows up?"

"Only if you make those pork chops you made the last time." Tex smiles, sort of excited to try his fellow hero's cooking again. To be quite fair, Tex has always loved Carolina barbecue, and Roger has a talent for it. "If that's the case, then I'd be tickled Pink to try it." He puts one hand in his pocket, before he feels a sharp pain in his chest. He places his free hand on his chest. He knows it's not his heart, so thus, he can tell what's going to happen.

"I-I'll see you around Roger." Before Roger could respond, Tex strides off quickly, entering the nearest bathroom. He closes the door behind himself and locks it as he kneels over the bowl of the toilet. Then the coughing fit starts to rock him, each wheezing cough misting red over the white porcelain. After around a minute and a half, his coughing fit concludes. Tex's eyes droop to observe the bowl, now looking like the site of some strange murder. He grabs the toilet paper and wipes the seat clean before he flushes, sanguine traces of his illness vanishing down the drain.

"Fuck, this can't keep going on." Tex gets up and exits the stall, grabbing a few paper towels from the dispenser and wiping the corners of his mouth and tossing it out. He knows his time is not particularly long, not that he's going to share that information with anybody.


End file.
